The Journal Early Fall 2024 by publisher-milfordjournal

KEITH HARING

2024 MILFORD READERS & WRITERS FESTIVAL

September 13, 14, 15 - Milford, PA

Milford Theatre - Ticketed Events - milfordreadersandwriters.com

Friday, September 13 Location

7 - 9 pm Effortless Mastery — Kenny Werner, pianist Milford Theatre

Saturday, September 14

1 0 - 11:15am Radiant, The Life and Line of Keith Haring Milford Theatre

11:30am-12:45pm Our World in the Age of AI Milford Theatre

2:15-3:30pm God Save Benedict Arnold Milford Theatre

3:45-5pm Richard Wiese - Born to Explore Milford Theatre

FREE Events - Everyone Welcome

Friday, September 13 Location

1:30 - 2:45pm Every Writer Needs a Group Library

3 - 4:15pm The Work Begins After the Book is Done - Marketing Library

Saturday, September 14

11am - 12:30pm The Last Fire Season - Climate Change Grey Towers

11am - 2pm Regional Authors - Stop by and chat Library

1- 2:15pm Teen Voices in the Future of Fiction Library

2 - 3:30pm Milford - Mecca for Science Fiction Good Shepherd Episcopal Chrch.

7:30 - 9pm Open Mic - Join others and share music and stories 315 Broad St. behind Jem Printing

Sunday, September 15

11am - 12:30pm In the Night Sky - UFOs Library

11 - 12:30pm Salon Series Funny Boy - LGBTQ+, Richard Hunt Bio Good Shepherd Episcopal Chrch.

1 - 2:15pm Healing Through Poetry Waterwheel

1 - 2:15pm Truth, Lies and Murder - Mystery Writers Library

1 - 2:30pm Salon Series Four Laws for the Artificially Intelligent Good Shepherd Episcopal Chrch.

2:30 - 3:45pm Surviving Cancer: Patients, Survivors Waterwheel

2:30 - 3:45pm Historical Romance: Future Through the Past Library

3 - 4:30pm Salon Series The Reluctant Conductor - Tim Turner Good Shepherd Episcopal Chrch.

Please note that filming/photography is taking place at the Milford Readers and Writers Festival for promotional and archival purposes. Photographs and recordings will appear on our website and social media. Author Books for sale at Better World Cafe. Milford Theatre Tickets available at givebutter.com/zMZCB8

Publisher & Editor Amy Bridge publisher@milfordjournal.com

Artist Keith Haring painting a backdrop for the Palladium Nightclub, New York City, 1985.

Graphic Design Maureen Taylor

Susan Mednick susanmed2@optonline.net

The Journalists

Julia Schmitt Healy • Bob Chernow

Alison Porter • Michelle Oram

Jane Primerano • Eric Francis

Associate Editor B’Ann Bowman

Advertising Team

Amy Bridge amy@milfordjournal.com

Kimberly Hess kimberlyhess212@gmail.com

Editorial Readers Robert Bowman Amy Smith

David Dangler dangler908@yahoo.com

The Poet Michelle Oram

Mission

The tri-state upper Delaware River highlands and valleys are a place of rare beauty…

Seeing the region and living in it almost aren’t enough. Such beauty should be captured on canvas or film so that one can truly appreciate it, glimpse it in the quiet of an art gallery or museum, or between the pages of a poetry book or literary sketch.

The Journal Group’s mission is to capture these momentary snapshots of beauty graphically and through the written word. We celebrate our area and the uniqueness of the people who live and work in the tri-state region. From Pike to Wayne and Monroe to Lackawanna Counties in Pennsylvania, upriver to Sullivan County and on to Orange County in New York, and to the headwaters of the Wallkill River and

along Warren and Sussex Counties’ rolling hills in New Jersey, with quaint, historic towns and hamlets at the center, the Journal Group opens its doors to our communities, businesses and organizations, to serve as a communicative journal of all that we have to offer for those who live here and for those who love to visit us, too.

Publication Information

The Journal Group publishes The Journal ten times a year and distributes it in eight counties in PA, NJ and NY. We assume no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts. Contents may not be reproduced in any form without prior written permission. We reserve the right to refuse to print advertisements that we deem inappropriate. All rights reserved.

The Literary World

We’re very lucky to have a readers and writers festival weekend in our part of the world. Locally, it’s the only one of this magnitude that I know about.

Through the years, and in conjunction with the Milford Readers and Writers Festival, we’ve interviewed many well-known writers, from Harlan Coben to Lee Child. We’ve also interviewed some famous people who’ve written books, such as Alan Alda and Harvey Fierstein. It’s always a pleasure to read their stories and, just as great, to hear them being interviewed on stage.

This year, you will be familiar with the headliner, Brad Gooch, if you have read the New York Times “Book Review” about his comprehensive biography of artist Keith Haring. Brad’s project, seven years in the making, offers a new perspective on Haring’s short life and the encompassing influence his legacy has had on our culture. His globally recognizable work can be found in prestigious museums. His art has been featured as an animated backdrop for a Madonna tour and in fashion designers’ collections. In 2008, there was a Haring balloon at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade–—but it all started as graffiti on subway ad panels!

In this issue, we also feature Manjula Martin, who wrote about living through California wildfires. The constant pressure of impending evacuation was hard on her health, both emotionally and physically, but in her writing, Manjula was able to tend to her garden, metaphorically and literally. As we’ve learned in the past few years, wildfires and their aftermath affect us all. Manjula’s story is poignant and hits home.

Born to Explore’s Richard Wiese, another festival headliner, was featured in our Summer issue. Many people commented on the beautiful cover photo of Richard “going places” as he rested in Australia’s desert with his buddy, the camel.

This year The Journal is sponsoring a writing workshop, “Every Writer Needs a Group,” at 1:30 p.m. on Friday, September 13th, at the Milford Library. Anyone can write. Start with one word. Turn it into a sentence. Before you know it, you’ve got a story to tell.

Maybe we’ll see you there? Amy

Autumn Reflection

As I walk home on this autumn day, I breathe in all I see.

The ordinary, everyday bushes and trees, I took for granted just hours ago, are now ablaze with color. What was once commonplace is now a work of art, a creation of uniqueness.

The sunny yellow deep burnt-orange foliage against an indifferent, dull palette sky, makes me realize no matter how gray a day I might be having, all I must do is go outside.

Stand still, and awaken in the blessedness all around me.

And just like the leaves of fall, maybe I can let go of all that is wrong, and concentrate on all that is right.

-Poem & Photo by Michelle Oram

Around the Towns

Early Fall

August 31st–September 1st

Friday–Sunday

Civil War Weekend. Museum Village, Monroe, NY. Demonstrations, exhibits, and hands-on activities. Info: 845.782.8248, museumvillage.org.

September 1st

Sunday 11 a.m.–4 p.m.

September 8th

Sunday 2–5 p.m.

Wine & Cheese Festival. Waterwheel Farm, Fredon, NJ. $70. Hosted by Friends of Karen Ann Quinlan Hospice. Info: 973.383.0115, www.karenannquinlanhospice.com.

5 p.m.

inside farm store

Mon-Sat 8am-4pm Manza Farm & Garden Center, Inc. 730 State Rt 211 Montgomery, NY 845.692.4364 of ce.manzagardencenter12549@gmail.com

Harvest Festival. Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, Bethel, NY. Farmers market, crafts, live performances & more. $7/parking. Also September 8th, 15th, 22nd & 29th. Info: 845.583.2000, www.bethelwoodscenter.org.

September 6th

Friday 6–8 p.m.

Samuelle Green: Exhibit Opening Reception. Wayne County Art Alliance Gallery, Honesdale, PA. Exhibit open until October 13th. Info: 570.729.5740, waynecountyarts alliance.org.

6–8 p.m.

Awards Dinner. Silver Birches Resort, Hawley, PA. Honoring community leaders. Hosted by Greater Pike Community Foundation. $150. Info: 570.832.4686, www.GreaterPike.org.

September 9th

Monday 6–9 p.m.

A Taste of Newton. Trinity St., Newton, NJ. Samples of local cuisine, music. Hosted by Greater Newton Chamber of Commerce. Info: 973.300.0433, greaternewtoncc.com/ taste.

September 10th

Tuesday 9 a.m.

Orange Open Golf Tournament. West Hills Country Club, Middletown, NY. $250. Hosted by Orange County Chamber of Commerce. Info: 845.294.1700, orangeny.com.

Candlelight Dinner at the Finger Bowl. Grey Towers, Milford, PA. $75. Reflects a Pinchot dinner around the Finger Bowl. Benefits Grey Towers Legacy Scholarship program fund. Info: 570.296.9630, greytowers.org.

September 7th

Saturday 9 a.m.–noon

Bowling Fundraiser. Sparta Lanes, Sparta, NJ. Benefits Peace by Piece NJ with the goal of enhancing the lives of those with intellectual/developmental disabilities. Info: 973.500.8408, mike@peacebypieceNJ.org.

10 a.m.–noon

Creative Leaf Casting. CCEOC Education Center, Otisville, NY. Create cement leaf casts. $35. Presented by Cornell Cooperative Extension, Orange County. Also September 14th. Info: 845.344.1234, www.cceorange county.org.

11 a.m.–4 p.m.

Meadow Party. Van Scott Nature Reserve, Beach Lake, PA. Puppet show, educational programs, trail walks, crafts & more. Hosted by Delaware Highlands Conservancy. Free but RSVPs requested. Info: 570.226.3164, delawarehighlands.org.

September 7th–8th

Saturday–Sunday 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

Renaissance Festival. Camp Sacajawea, Sparta, NJ. Music, food, shows, vendors. Tickets: $10–$20. Also September 14th–15th and 21st–22nd. Info: 862.268.0129, www. spartanjrenfaire.com

6–9 p.m.

Taste of Warwick. Warwick Valley Winery, Warwick, NY. $75–$85. Food, spirits & music. Sponsored by the Warwick Valley Chamber of Commerce. Info: 845.986.2720, www.warwickcc.org.

September 13th–15th

Friday–Sunday

Milford Readers and Writers Festival. Main Stage: Milford Theater, Milford, PA. Festival Passes $175. Free events around Milford. Info: milfordreadersandwriters.com.

September 14th

Saturday 9 a.m.–4 p.m.

Arts & Crafts Fair. Bingham Park, Hawley, PA. Fine handcrafted wares, entertainment, food. Hosted by the Chamber of the Northern Poconos. Info: 570.226.3191, www. northernpoconos.org.

9 a.m.

Scholarship Golf Outing. Tarry Brae Golf Course, South Fallsburg, NY. Benefits Monticello Rotary Club College Scholarship Foundation. Info: 845.798.1770, Facebook: Rotary Club of Monticello, NY.

5:30–7:00 p.m.

Tesla Quartet: Vienna by Day and Night. Grey Towers, Milford, PA. Music of Mo-

zart, Schubert, and Webern. $25. Hosted by Kindred Spirits Arts Programs. Info: 570.390.8699, www.kindredspiritsarts.org.

September 15th

Sunday Noon–4 p.m.

Sussex County Day. Sussex County Fairgrounds, Augusta, NJ. Music, crafts, food, vendors, contests. Free. Hosted by Sussex County Chamber of Commerce. Info: 973.579.1811, sussexcountychamber.org

September 16th

Monday 8:30 a.m.

Golf for Charity. West Hills Country Club, Middletown, NY. Reception & awards. $230. Benefits local charities. Hosted by Catholic Charities of Orange, Sullivan, Ulster. Info: www.cccsos.org, 845.294.5124.

9:00 a.m.

Memorial Golf Outing. Lords Valley Country Club, Lords Valley, PA. $125. Golf and BBQ. Benefits Hemlock Farms Vol. Fire and Rescue & Blooming Grove Volunteer Fire Dept. Info: 570.228.1715.

September 19th

Thursday 11:30 a.m.–1:00 p.m.

Community Lunch. Good Shepherd Parish Hall, Milford, PA. Also October 17th, November 21st, December 19th. Hosted by Ecumenical Food Pantry & Good Shepherd Episcopal Church. Free. Info: 570.0618.1568.

September 20th–21st

Friday–Saturday

Septemberfest. Milford, PA. Music, family fun & food, all over town. For map of events, visit milfordpa.us/event/septemberfest-2024 or Facebook: Milford Presents.

September 20th–22nd

Friday–Sunday

Fall Flights: Birds & Brews. PEEC, Dingmans Ferry, PA. Guided hikes & bird watching. Beverages from local breweries on Saturday. $230. Info: 570.828.2319, peec.org.

September 21st

Saturday 9–11 a.m.

Celebrate a Life 5K Walk. Sussex County Fairgrounds, Augusta, NJ. $15–$25. Benefits Joseph T. Quinlan Bereavement Center. Info: 973.383.0115, www.karenannquinlan hospice.org.

10 a.m.–10 p.m.

Festival in the Borough. Downtown Washington Borough, NJ. Music festival, vendors, food trucks, games & more. Info: 908.689.4800, www.washingtonbid.org

Noon–5 p.m.

Tunes Along the Towpath. Glen Eyre Farm, Hawley, PA. Featuring tributes to the Doors and Jefferson Airplane. $25–$30. Benefits Pike County Historical Society. Info: 570.296.8126, pikehistorical.org/events.

1 p.m.

The Spirits of Lower Walpack Cemetery. Walpack Center, NJ. Hosted by Walpack Historical Society. Info: 973.552.8880, www. walpackhistory.org

September 22nd

Sunday 10 a.m.–5 p.m.

Fall Foliage Festival. Front St., Port Jervis, NY. Music, food, crafts, antique cars & more. Hosted by Port Jervis Tourism Board. Info: 845.858.4000, www.portjervisny.gov.

11 a.m.–7 p.m.

Vets Summer Fest. Vasa Park, Budd Lake, NJ. Crafts, food, music, car show & more. Benefits Operation Chillout, Homeless Veterans Outreach. Info: www.vetssummerfest.org

2 p.m.

Amazing Animal Adaptations. Delaware Township Municipal Hall, Dingmans Ferry, PA. Presented by the Pocono Wildlife Rehabilitation & Educational Center. Hosted by the Dingmans Ferry-Delaware Township Historical Society. Info: dingmansferryhistorical society.org.

September 23rd

Monday

Golf Outing. Lords Valley Country Club, Lords Valley, PA. Scramble format. $150. Benefits Center for Developmental Disabilities. Info: 570.296.3992, golf@cddkids.org.

September 28th

Saturday 10 a.m.–5 p.m.

Festival of Wood: A Celebration of Our Natural & Cultural Wood Heritage. Grey Towers, Milford, PA. Handmade crafts, arts, programs, children’s activities, mansion tours, refreshments. Info: 570.296.9630, greytowers.org.

4:30 & 6:00 p.m.

Chili Cookoff & Line Dancing. Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, Sparta, NJ. Chili contestants need to sign up in advance. Call 973.224.0986. Line Dancing follows. $12. Info: www.sothnj.org, 973.729.7010.

September 28th–29th

Saturday–Sunday Noon–6 p.m.

Oktoberfest. Hackettstown, NJ. Crafts, music, food & drinks, contests, activities. Free. Info: Hackettstownbid.com.

September 29th

Sunday 12:30–3:30 p.m.

Taste of the Harvest. Cedar Lakes Estates, Port Jervis, NY. Locally sourced brunch, jazz concert. Hosted by Delaware Highlands Conservancy. $125. Info: 570.226.3164, delaware highlands.org.

2 p.m.

Fun, Family Event. SideStreet Bar & Grill, Dingmans Ferry, PA. Cornhole tournament, barbeque, axe throwing. Benefits GAIT and Pike Autism Support Services. Info: 570.409.1140.

Some visit to relive the past and their journey to Woodstock. Others come to experience what it was like for the first time. Through artifacts, films, music -and even a hippie busyou will be inspired not only by what was the most prolific three-day festival in history, but by the ideals that still remain relevant today.

Guided Docent Tours

Get a more comprehensive idea of what went down at Woodstock. (Some of our docents were even at the festival!) +$5 with museum ticket on weekends.

DON’T MISS OUT ON THE FUN! JOIN US!

Beginning Sat., Sept. 21st. Runs every weekend through Nov. 3rd. Live entertainment and traditional fare.

LET US CATER YOUR Oktoberfest Party at your Home or Business! Call 973 347 3344 or, visit: www.blackforestinn.com

The M useu m at Bethe l Woods | Open Daily 1 0AM- 5PM Open until show starts on concert days.

Untitled, 1980, gouache, spray enamel and ink on paper.

Photo © Keith Haring Foundation

Gooch’s Radiant Keith Haring

Keith Haring’s chalk drawings were all over New York City in the late 1970s. Haring drew around 5,000 of the symbolic drawings, which were to become part of the pop art phenomenon; yet for a period of time, few people knew who the “Chalk Man” was. Biographer Brad Gooch calls Haring’s drawings “one of the largest public works of art anywhere.”

Gooch first noticed the street art of Keith Haring while walking from the West to the East Village. At the intersection of the two areas, he saw a stencil on the sidewalk that said, “Clones Go Home,” which, as a gay man, he understood immediately as an inside joke referencing the gentrification of the East Village.

Dive into Brad Gooch’s 2024 Radiant, The Life and Line of Keith Haring, and he will take you to the wonderful, and somewhat grungy, days of the downtown art scene during the ’70s and ’80s. For those of us who lived there then, it will palpably bring back memories of the look, feel, and smells of the East Village and Soho of the period.

Gooch, who has written several acclaimed biographies (Frank O’Hara, Flannery O’Connor, the Sufi poet Rumi), as well as poetry and novels, will be one of the headliners at the 2024 Milford Readers & Writers Festival in September.

Both Haring and Gooch were born in Pennsylvania— Haring in Kutztown and Gooch in Kingston. Gooch came to New York in the ’70s and graduated from Columbia with a bachelor’s degree in 1973 and a doctorate in 1986. He has written fifteen books and has had articles in such publications as The Paris Review, The New Republic, The New Yorker, Harper’s Bazaar, Vanity Fair, Out, The Nation, and New York Magazine.

Recently, I talked to Gooch about his book, as well as its fascinating subject. I wanted to know how this seven-year project came about.

“Well, I was living at Bleecker and the Bowery in 1978 and found myself in the heart of this lively scene. You would see posters pasted up on the street advertising rock concerts; there were acid-colored graffiti works spray-painted everywhere. I noticed the crawling babies or barking dogs here and there. But it was after Haring made the subway chalk drawings that I found out who he was. Initially, the drawings were anonymous. Between a Smirnoff ad and another for Oh Calcutta!, there would be an impermanent, somewhat cartoony, fascinating drawing by Keith.”

Gooch would occasionally see Haring in the neighborhood (“He stood out.”), and he began to think about writing a novel about him. That never came to fruition, but over the years, he maintained his interest in Keith’s work and story.

“I thought I needed to get the history of the period down. What it was like to live through AIDS when there was no effective treatment. People back then were referred to as being a PWA, Person With AIDS.

He tells me how courageous it was in 1988 for Haring to agree to an article in Rolling Stone magazine in which he announced that he had contracted AIDS. “Meanwhile,” Gooch notes, “Rock Hudson died of AIDS, and everyone pretended it was something else. Roy Cohn, too. It was dishonest.”

Haring used his art as a political tool. Gooch refers to him as an “artivist,” a term I love. “One of his most powerful series was his SILENCE=DEATH posters.” It became a battle cry of sorts. He helped the young grassroots agency, ACT UP, founded to work toward ending the AIDS epidemic, by donating money to keep it afloat. Some of his sales were in cash, and he kept the money in a knapsack. So he’d dig out $10,000 and hand it over to be deposited. “At one point, Haring was financing one-third of ACT UP’s budget.” He also helped out many needy friends over the years.

Continued on next page

Gooch tells me, “Keith’s themes became responses to current events. He depicted racism, death, homophobia, Apartheid, and violence. He dealt with serious issues in a cartoony style. He didn’t appropriate his subject matter. He was original.”

Gooch says Haring was the opposite of Andy Warhol, who used mundane imagery (soup cans, coke bottles, Brillo boxes, movie stars) and silk screened them on canvas in a bright, but realistic, style. Eventually Warhol became a friend/mentor and sometime collaborator with Haring, but their approach to art was very different. “Art is for everybody, no matter your color or status,” could have been Keith’s motto; whereas, Andy was successful in the more traditional gallery system.

One consistent thing about Haring’s art was that he worked on a variety of substrates and objects. An early series used large posters of celebrities that were then al-

tered with painted patterns and slashes. He found some enormous fiberglass vases with classical shapes that he would transform with enamel and ink, creating registers of his iconic imagery and patterns. He also painted on vinyl tarps, metal, glazed paper, concrete, canvas, and even three-dimensional objects such as chalk boxes and the human body.

Two of the most famous people he painted were the dancer/choreographer Bill T. Jones for a performance in London and disco diva Grace Jones, the latter being photographed by none other than Robert Mapplethorpe.

Late in his career, Haring mostly worked on canvases, which were rectangular or square but sometimes stretched into triangular shapes. His striking 1988 work, A Pile of Crowns for Jean-Michel Basquiat, was made in response to his friend’s death. The crown, of course, was one of Basquiat’s most enduring symbols.

A Pile of Crowns for Jean-Michel Basquiat , August 19, 1988, acrylic on canvas.

Photo © Keith Haring Foundation

Untitled, 1982, enamel and Day-Glo on metal.

Photo © Keith Haring Foundation.

Untitled, 1982, vinyl ink on vinyl tarp. Photo © Keith Haring Foundation

When Gooch decided it was time to write a biography, not a novel, he was fortunate to get the full cooperation of the Keith Haring Foundation, as well as the blessing of John Gruen, who had written the “authorized” biography of Haring in 1991. After thirty-plus years, Gooch felt he could add to the story and create a work that would reflect Keith’s enduring legacy. He was given access to the foundation’s extensive archive—paintings, drawings, journals, faxes, videos, etc. “Apparently,” he says, “Keith kept everything.” Gooch interviewed more than 200 people and finished his work on Zoom as Covid entered the picture.

Radiant, The Life and Line of Keith Haring takes us from Kutztown, PA, where Keith grew up, highlighting friends, passions, teachers, and influences. Haring’s father was an amateur cartoonist, and Keith clearly had a facility for drawing from the get-go. The family saved some of Keith’s early artwork, and it shows an exceptional attention to detail and love of color and pattern.

Like all young teens, he went through some “periods.” Haring discovered drugs and went hippie. There was a Grateful Dead period. There were a couple of relationships with girls and road trips during the summer. Typical

Two Great Places, One Location!

After graduating from high school, Keith went to the Ivy School of Professional Art, a commercial-type school in Pittsburgh that lacked a campus. After two years there, it was off to the School of Visual Arts in New York City. It was here that Haring took a course in semiotics, which is “the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation.” When you look at his work, you often see symbols—hearts, angels, snakes, skulls, dogs, crosses, monsters, alien spaceships, and, of course, babies.

Haring was a tireless worker. At this point, the story heats up. He meets people in the graffiti world. He drops out of art school after two more years, realizing that his career is soaring and he doesn’t need instruction anymore.

Gooch mentions that Haring would sit in the subway and watch as the painted trains came into the station—sort of a moving art exhibit that came to you. And it was in the subway where he would pick a train line and stop at each station that had a blank ad panel to draw on.

He had formed an auspicious friendship with artist Tseng Kwong Chi, who decided to make a photographic record of as many of the drawings as he could. Keith would tell him which stations he had hit, and Tseng would follow

Come meet a wide selection of vendors in Vernon next to The Daily Bean. Gifts and Home Decor.

the route with his camera. If the transit police asked for his permit, he pretended to be a Japanese tourist.

Clearly, I can’t summarize a 434-page, brilliantly written biography, so I leave it to you to get the book and marvel at Keith’s work ethic, his imagination, education, interests, poetry, use of unusual materials, collaborations, connections, influences, social life, musical taste, generosity, public art projects, fame, travel, unique approach to artmaking, promotional ideas, and sales. It’s astounding.

Once Haring realized he was HIV positive, he “revved it up,” according to Gooch. He worked on numerous projects in Europe and continued to make art practically up to the very end. Reading between the lines, I find the courage to share his condition and seeming lack of self-pity extraordinary. Haring died at age 31 in 1990.

As our interview time winds down, I ask Gooch if he owns any work by Haring. “Well, I do have a New Year’s card he made, and I had it framed. I love it.”

I think to myself: It’s so in character—the positivity of Keith sending out a card, wishing his friends a “Happy New Year.” And meaning it.

Enter the world of Keith Haring on Saturday, September 14th at 10 a.m. Brad Gooch will be interviewed by photographer Christopher Makos, who met Haring in New York City. Makos was responsible for introducing Andy Warhol to Haring’s work at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery. Brad Gooch lives in Manhattan with his husband, Paul Raushenbush, and their two children.

Julia Schmitt Healy is an artist, professor, and writer, currently living and working in Port Jervis, New York. Her website is Juliahealy.com.

ON THE SIDE

l Gooch began his career as a fashion model in New York City. In one interview, he jokes he was a “B-plus” model.

l Gooch visited Milford once about ten years ago when he interviewed current mayor, Sean Strub, about the Fauchère Hotel for Travel + Leisure magazine. Strub, who was active in ACT UP’s fund-raising efforts, also features in the biography.

l Haring was arrested more than once for his subway work. Charges were usually dismissed, or he paid a fine.

l Most of Haring’s works are titled Untitled. This becomes a nightmare for archivists as they are difficult to differentiate and sort out.

Photo of poster

courtesy of Julia Schmitt Healy

Phoenix Fall Fashion Show

Saturday, September 21, 2024 * 3 - 5 p.m.

All Are Welcome to Come Enjoy Seeing Doug Cosh’s Unique Fall Picks Worn by Local Models. Celebrating Our Diversity! Free Food and Beverages

The Phoenix

828 Route 209 * Dingmans Ferry, PA (8 miles from Milford) For more information: 713.298.5639

By Alison Porter

The Magical Power of Pizza

About ten years ago during an especially frigid winter, I “discovered” a vacation spot while searching online. It was located on an island off the coast of Maine. I desperately needed something sunny and serene to look forward to come July, to sustain me through the rest of those cold days.

Since I was a solo traveler, my needs were modest, and I managed to find a studio cabin, nestled into the side of a hill, steps from the ocean. It boasted amenities such as a refrigerator and stove. It didn’t bother me that the place lacked indoor plumbing, running water, television, cell phone service, Wi-Fi, or a reliable radio signal. Or that everything you wanted or might need had to be brought on the island by you. Oh, and, besides the seasonal bakery, there were no restaurants. I couldn’t wait.

When I arrived, the reality was even more enchanting than what I had imagined. The entire island was scented with rose rugosa that grew everywhere. Wild raspberries were ripe and ready for picking on the side of the road. I settled in for a week of naps, walks on the beach, and reading. With every passing day, I fell deeper into a state of relaxation.

When the owner offered to extend my stay by a few days, I grabbed the chance. The only issue was—food. I was running low on food. All I had left was brown rice.

The owner generously contributed some dry and canned goods to tide me over along with some cheese and eggs to keep me from starving.

Wandering around the island one day, I ran into a local—an artist, whose wife, also an artist, worked on the mainland and came out on weekends. He invited me to join them for dinner. I accepted with alacrity. It was such a friendly gesture, and I was hungry.

I showed up at the appointed hour, after a walk along the dirt and gravel main road, turning past the church onto a path. I wasn’t sure if I was at the right house until the artist’s mop of white hair popped out into view. From the moment the door opened, I felt welcomed and at home.

Staying at the rustic cabin had raised my appreciation for the everyday miracles of modern life. I felt giddy with excitement when I used the powder room. It was not an outhouse, and I washed my hands with warm running water from a sink. Could life get better than this?

Apparently it could. My hosts led me on a tour of their home and gardens, which they had lovingly renovated over the years. After, I sank happily into a comfy chair as we chatted over glasses of chilled wine. I was growing tipsy from the tantalizing aromas emanating from the kitchen. Dinner smelled heavenly.

Continued on next page

It was pizza! And a salad! Now, pizza and salad may sound like a quick, thrown-together meal. But on the island, fresh greens were a luxury, and homemade pizza—well, it was a rare treat. Served from a sheet pan, this thin crust pizza, topped with many vegetables and two types of cheese, was a work of art.

I gasped at the first bite, and my body melted in pleasure. From the crispy bottom that almost crackled in my mouth, to soft creamy melted cheese on top, and all the vegetables in the middle, I inadvertently groaned with pleasure. Each mouthful was a delight and a surprise. Corn on pizza? I had never considered corn before, but I became an instant fan. The pizza crust? My host revealed that the recipe came from the legendary Sullivan Street Bakery.

Later, I waddled back down to my cabin by moonlight, clutching a generous slab of leftover pizza. I felt wholly satiated with the gracious hospitality, interesting conversation, and, of course, the fantabulous pizza. I slept like a contented, well-fed baby. This memory still holds a treasured spot in my heart.

Back home in the suburbs, I sought to recreate the magic of that meal with my family and friends. It was so much easier at home. There were modern conveniences, like pre-made pizza dough, a seemingly endless variety of cheeses, dozens of types of jarred sauce, fresh produce, and supermarket shelves stocked with other exotic ingredients. The possibilities were limited only by my imagination and personal preferences. My family was open to new flavors and combinations of ingredients, so this was our new dining adventure.

Pizza-making night became a “thing” in our home. Most of the time, I planned ahead and made Jim Lahey’s NoKnead Pizza Dough recipe found in his book, My Pizza Since its introduction, this recipe has become a classic, in part because it takes only a few minutes and gives consistently great results. Other times I picked up dough at the store. The point of pizza night was not perfection, but connection and spending time together.

Over months, through trial and error, that superb island sheet-pan pizza dish evolved into a make-your-own personal pizza, grilled outdoors on aluminum foil. It was a fun activity and a relaxing way to share the news of our days and unwind as we each created our completely personalized dinner.

Word spread among my children’s friends, and our home became a popular spot for hosting make-your-own parties. Our guests approached their dinner like an arts-andcrafts project. They were eager to use their hands to shape their unique creations. Some kids showed they had experience in the kitchen as they worked their fingers deftly through the dough. They stretched it out like a pro and shaped it easily into a round pie shape. Others handled the dough more like Play-Doh, mauling and mutilating it into a misshapen mess, sometimes topping it with a pink mush combination of pizza sauce and mozzarella.

Bowls of toppings offered more ways to customize the pizzas. Artistically inclined chefs would make a smiley face out of olives and pepper strips or pretty patterns. Some pizzas were so heavily laden with cheese alone that they were in danger of collapsing under their weight before making it to the grill. Others could have been more accurately described as grilled bread. Still, all the pizza makers admired and consumed their creations with great pride and gusto.

These meals usually ended with brownie sundaes because who doesn’t love brownies, whipped cream, and hot fudge sauce? I usually whipped up a batch of homemade brownies, but, in my book, all brownies no matter what the provenance are delicious. On an extravagant evening, we would expand the offerings to a full-scale sundae bar, featuring extras such as sliced berries, bananas, caramel sauce, mini marshmallows, M&M’S, sprinkles, and cherries. As with my experience on the island, everyone left full and happy.

The summer after my first visit, when I returned to Maine, I packed all the ingredients to make pizza and brownies. The brownie recipe was especially well suited for the basic kitchen in that it didn’t require a hand mixer. I wanted to share something special with the people who had shown me kindness and hospitality. Although I could never recapture the perfection of that first homemade pizza, I like to think that homemade pizza is a great goodwill ambassador, demonstrating that food shared is a universal symbol of friendship.

Tasty At-Home Pizza

Pizza Dough: Homemade (Jim Lahey’s recipe or your family favorite), store bought, flatbread, English muffins, pita bread, or other choice.

Sauces: Options include homemade or store-bought pizza sauce, pesto, olive oil, and white sauce.

Toppings: The possibilities are endless. There are the typical kid faves such as sausage, meatball, pepperoni, peppers, onions, and, dare I say, ham and pineapple. Adults enjoy the caramelized onions, garlic slivers toasted in olive oil, steamed broccoli rabe, sautéed mushrooms, slivered hot peppers. Surprise hits are canned additions such as corn (amazing!), artichoke hearts, asparagus spears, and roasted red peppers.

Cheese: Grated mozzarella, grated parmesan, Fontina, and fresh mozzarella, to name a few.

• Preheat the oven to 450 degrees or higher. If you have a pizza stone, preheat it in the oven. If using a grill, preheat the grill.

• Form the pizza dough and place it on a lightly floured surface. If using a pan sheet, spread a thin layer of olive oil in the pan, and toss a little cornmeal on the pan. Stretch the dough and form it into the pan, or the desired shape. A double layer of heavy duty foil can be used to support pizzas prepared for the grill, slid off or left under for cooking.

• Now build your personal pizza. Starting with a pizza sauce or other desired sauce, add your favorite topping or combination of toppings. Sprinkle with a little Parmesan cheese and finish with mozzarella or other cheese. Reserve fresh herbs for the last 2 minutes of cooking.

• Cook for five minutes and rotate the pizza to cook evenly. For a crispy crust, the pizza will take 8–12 minutes, depending on the heat and toppings. Cool slightly before enjoying so you don’t burn the roof of your mouth!

Favorite Brownies

12 tablespoons butter, plus more for buttering the pan

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, broken into pieces

3 eggs

1 ½ cups granulated white sugar

1 ½ cups packed dark brown sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon strong coffee, or coffee or chocolate extract

¾ cup flour

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, setting a rack in the center of the oven.

• Butter a 9 x 9 inch pan, line with foil or parchment paper, and butter the foil or parchment lining.

• Bring water to a boil in the bottom of a double boiler and turn the heat to low. In the top of the double boiler or a heat-proof bowl, combine and melt the butter and chocolate, stirring occasionally.

• In a large bowl, whisk the eggs until combined, then gradually whisk in the sugars, salt, vanilla, and coffee or

extract. Stir in the butter and chocolate mixture. Gently fold in the flour and cocoa powder.

• Pour the batter into the pan, smoothing the top. Bake for about 50 minutes, until the top is glossy and the batter is firm.

• Cool the brownies in the pan. Remove from the pan and loosen the foil or parchment before wrapping it entirely in foil. The brownies can rest overnight on the counter or in the refrigerator. They can also be frozen at this point and brought to room temperature before cutting. Makes 16 brownies.

Roseville Schoolhouse today. Photos courtesy of Byram Township Historical Society

One Room Only

The Roseville School

Third graders in the sprawling township of Byram, NJ, have a unique opportunity to learn history by living it.

On certain spring mornings, the school bell in the Roseville School on Mansfield Drive rings just like it did in the early 19th century, and children, who attend Byram Lakes School nearby, walk to the historic schoolhouse.

Each third grade class comes separately because there are now 80 children in that grade, Frank Gonzalez of the Byram Township Historical Society explained.

He and a few other members of the historical society help the teachers present lessons about the school’s history and how children learned in the days it operated, as well as a lesson on the history of the township. Children then participate in a “treasure hunt” to find some of the artifacts in the school. Each gets the opportunity to ring the bell on the way out. “Sometimes we have handouts to give them a little more information,” he said.

The children are fascinated about the differences,

“Chalk boards are better than smart boards,” an 8-year-old commented. Her friends solemnly nodded.

The Roseville School is the lone survivor of six one-room schoolhouses in Byram, as documented by the historical society. The township then included what are now Hopatcong and Stanhope. Hopatcong incorporated as Brooklyn Borough in 1898 and Stanhope incorporated in 1904, with one schoolhouse within the borders of each.

One-room schoolhouses were the American answer to laws requiring public education. Prussia was one of the earliest countries with public schooling for both boys and girls beginning prior to 1773, but other countries in Europe followed in the next decades.

In the era before transportation was available for children, schools were built at the center of a populated area. Rural

Continued on next page

Roseville Schoolhouse c.1900, built in 1890.

communities with small populations continued the practice when cities had abandoned it. According to a Forbes magazine article, there were once as many as 190,000 one-room schoolhouses in the U.S. By 2020, about 400 remained. That geography made a difference is brought home to students.

“Our Middle School was built in 1880, and the trolley stopped in front,” a little girl from Newark commented

Occasionally, creative methods of public transportation were employed. The Lebanon Township Museum in Hunterdon County has a restored horse-drawn sleigh that a farmer used to transport children across the frozen Musconetcong River from Warren County to the school in New Hampton, township resident and history volunteer Sharon Hardy explained.

Schooling in the winter months was emphasized because children were not needed to work on the farm. The early settlers often provided only three months of reading, writing, and arithmetic to children according to the Byram Township Historical Society. The primitive log schools were heated with a coal or wood stove.

By 1829, education was more formalized. The state gave counties the authority to lay out school districts and elect trustees, the precursor to today’s school boards.

quired by the historical society. It had red cedar siding originally, but later photographs show a lighter siding. It is white today.

“Although the schoolhouse is smaller than many of today’s classrooms, it was expected to hold up to 46 students, according to the official history of the township. It probably didn’t often have to hold that many,” said Gonzalez, “because some children didn’t necessarily attend school regularly. Often they had to work on the family farm rather than attend classes.”

During the cutoff construction, from 1908 to 1911, however, the schoolhouses along the railroad had to serve the children of the many workers who moved temporarily into the area, and they became quite crowded.

In 1871, state law made all public schools in New Jersey free and authorized the districts to provide all necessary materials. The expense of shipping paper from the early New England paper mills necessitated the use of the chalkboards that so entrance today’s elementary schoolers.

The Roseville School was District 39. Districts were the bodies that raised money through taxation until the state passed a law in 1894 making each municipality its own school district. Byram created its board of education the next year. The schools were required to teach children through eighth grade at which point most returned to work on the family farm or business or apprenticed to a tradesman.

A group of eighth grade boys confided that apprenticing to the blacksmith was much more appealing than another year of school.

The Roseville School is actually the fourth and last school of that name. It was built in 1889 on Lackawanna Drive, then called Roseville Road. An earlier schoolhouse was still standing near the lake until construction of the Lackawanna Cutoff in 1909.

The “new” Roseville School was moved when it was ac-

William Strait of the Sussex County Historical Society, a well-known expert on the cutoff, said there could have been up to 100 workers coming into the township for the cutoff construction, and during that period, the enrollment in Roseville School could have been as many as 50 children. An article in the New Jersey Herald of the period confirmed that the new families in town necessitated the expansion of the school.

The cutoff was an engineering marvel that brought passenger service across the mountains of western New Jersey through a system of tunnels and overpasses. An ad for the Lackawanna Railroad’s famous Phoebe Snow, a train that burned anthracite coal and was said to be so clean passengers could wear white on the journey, touted the cutoff as cutting eleven miles off the trip between New York City and Buffalo.

However, by the 1912–13 school year, Roseville temporarily closed because of a lack of students.

Frances Hart was the last teacher at Roseville. She had about 30 pupils in her class most years, with varying numbers in each grade. She prepared separate lessons for each age group and assigned work to keep the children busy when she was attending to another group.

A New Jersey Herald article describes Hart as establishing work committees of the children with assignment based on age levels. They would chop wood, carry water, or clean the outhouse. In winter, Hart would sometimes stop at the lake and cut through the ice to bring water into the school.

There aren’t records showing that Hart spent part of her day inspecting the hygiene of her pupils, but that seemed to be part of the job, as detailed in the book, My Face to the Wind: The Diary of Sarah Jane Price, a Prairie Teacher. Author Jim Murphy writes that during Price’s time teaching in Broken Bow, NE, in the 1880s, she checked for clean hands and fingernails, made sure children had

washed their faces and behind their ears, and sniffed to make sure they bathed.

Most Byram children walked to school, but a few rode horses or bicycles. Frances Hart would walk or drive her horse and carriage. She later taught at the township’s consolidated school and eventually became its principal.

Transportation options for the children allowed Byram to consolidate its schools in 1936, Gonzalez said. Roseville had closed in 1925 with the remaining pupils going to Amity and Stanhope Borough schools until the consolidation. But that wasn’t the end of its use.

In 1935, two local Episcopalians, Beatrice Johnson and the Rev. Edwin S. Ford, vicar of St. Mary’s in Sparta and a direct descendent of the founding family of Byram, arranged for the building to be leased to the Episcopal Diocese of Newark for $1 a year to serve as St. Joseph’s Church, a mission of St. Mary’s, according to Diocesan records.

In the Episcopal Church, a mission is a non-self-governing church joined to a larger church. It may or may not have full-time clergy. Father Ford had started St. Mary’s Church in 1919 for “the mountain people,” presumably residents of Sparta Mountain who lived in tiny shacks and were looked on as less “civilized” than those in Sparta proper. It also served workers from the nearby Edison mine, according to church records.

Church records also show that Johnson obtained some lumber from a project in Andover to add an extra room to the building. The schoolhouse remained a church until 1965 when members dispersed to St. Mary’s and to St. Peter’s in Mount Arlington.

In 1985, a citizens group, led by Township Clerk Frances Weber, Frances Hart’s daughter, had Roseville School moved to its present location, which is part of the Byram Township municipal complex, and converted it into a museum maintained by the historical society. In 2009, eight of the windows were replaced, donated by local residents with dedications to family or friends.

“We love to pretend that we are really attending a one-room schoolhouse,” a group of township children pointed out, and “our parents really like the ‘Little House on the Prairie’ vibe.”

Extra-Curricular Tours

Sussex County, NJ

Price’s Switch Schoolhouse, Vernon Township, NJ. Built in 1840. View coal stove, desks, chalkboards, and outhouse. Tours can be arranged by calling 973.764.6545 or emailing vernonhistorical soceity@gmail.com

Neldon-Roberts Stonehouse, Montague, NJ. Circa 1827, furnished as an old schoolhouse. Tours held by M.A.R.C.H., www.montaguehistorical.org.

Wayne County, PA

Bethel School, Berlin Township, PA. Constructed in 1870. Preserved by the Wayne County Historical Society. Original desks and textbooks. For tours, call 570.253.3240 or email dotk@ptd.net

Pike County, PA

Besides providing history lessons to township children, the Byram Township Historical Society opens the schoolhouse to tours. It is always open on Sussex County Heritage Weekend, which this year is Saturday, October 12th, and Sunday, October 13th. Gonzalez said the school has also been used for weddings on several occasions. Call the historical society at 973.570.3133 for information or to schedule a tour.

Schocopee Schoolhouse, Milford, PA. Circa 1850. Donated to the Pike County Historical Society. Original teacher’s desk and other nostalgia. For more information, call 570.296.8126 or email pikemuse@ ptd.net

Byram Schoolhouse Museum visit by the Byram Lakes 3rd grade class.

Healing Through Nature & Music

Finding Your Voice

After a lifetime spent in the performing arts as a vocal teacher, director, and performer, I went into semi-retirement at age 58. My students are now singers, composers, vocal coaches, and music therapists; and many have performed on and off Broadway. I began my quest to write a book, wanting to help people embrace their voices—flaws and all. Writing, I soon discovered, is another way to express yourself through a symphony of emotions.

The book, Song of Me, is my story of healing, acceptance, and self-love, wrapped in the poetry of nature and grounded in the principles of music, which led me to unite with the teacher within.

I have spent my life in search of family, haunted by the demons of my ancestors. My journey led me down many paths in pursuit of a melody understood. Some were rooted in nature’s symphonic glory and others so dark I lost my voice and identity. Yet each time a bird in hand, a sign of promise and hope, rescued me and gave me the courage to move on.

This book is my psychological journey with music and nature and how it has affected who I am as a mother,

teacher, performer, and universal soul. My voice taught me that I am enough.

Many of my students have come to me over the years with reasons why they couldn’t sing: “My music teacher in third grade said to mouth the words.” “My family laughs at me when I practice.” “I don’t like the way I sound. Everyone tells me I can’t sing—I hate my voice.” A teacher’s job is to help the student be their own best teacher. They must be gentle and give themselves encouragement when they make a mistake.

A student should learn that everything needed comes from within: trust, trial, and error. When on the right path, they are connected with their heart’s needs and desires. After opening a student’s eyes to the power of their own voice, I watched their relationship with their voice change for the better. Living with one’s voice can be tough at times, but it can also energize our body and release stress that can build into our everyday lives. Connecting with the breath allows the voice to find the balance it needs to soar.

Over the years, I have witnessed folks who were tone-deaf match pitches and produce beautiful sounds; wallflowers get the leads in their high school musicals; children with

autism embrace music and connect with their voices. I have seen students who had no memory, because of physical challenges, sing entire concerts by heart, and students who had failed in all aspects of their lives turn their lives around because of music.

Music has been my life jacket. It allows me to find my own expression as I get lost in a song, while journeying into my most personal, intimate thoughts. When words escape me, music invigorates my spirit with the physical release of dance. Music elevates my emotions when I watch a motion picture. At a rally, religious function, or sporting event, the communion of music brings together the voices of the masses as we sing as one.

Perhaps, it was a lifetime of music that inspired my book writing to take flight in poetry. A poem can orchestrate a chapter of life on a single page. My words sing to the highs and lows of my existence. No matter what life left at my doorstep, there was always a song to help me, understand me, and pluck at my heartstrings—making me feel that it was written just for me.

Our separate, individual experiences help make our voices unlike any other. Writing and singing are therapeutic. Writing lets us put on paper all we are feeling, helping us to better understand our emotions, while singing helps us to get lost and ride the melodies of our emotions. Both practices aid us cleanse the mind of all our daily pressures.

After many years, I learned from the art of singing how to be comfortable in my own skin. Believe in yourself, nurture yourself, and keep on trying. Never permit a teacher to strip you of your voice, as a singer or as a writer.

Music is poetry. It transforms the way I look at the world. To help my words sing and have rhythm I combined lyric prose with standard poetry. Lyric prose blends narrative and poetry, creating a rhythmic style that’s actually easy to read and helps the reader with the poetic flow and emotional space words need.

I wanted the readers to be able to hear my words sing to them, so I also recorded Song of Me as an audiobook. I was thrilled when my son-in-law, Kody Daniel, allowed me to thread his alluring music throughout the book. It heightens the emotional connection of my words.

Wherever I roam I’m not alone, the music of my life creeps up and is ever present.

Inside each one of us there is a Divine teacher waiting to be honored and cherished, so their voice can be heard. My goal in writing Song of Me was to make the reader look at music in a totally different way, open their eyes to

the music all around us, and maybe make them want to begin and end each day with a song.

There is a song planted in each and every one of us.

My Inner Teacher

Within me

a monument of books from ancestors past buried deep in my soul.

All I must do is download each beat of my heart to unlock the pages, sit and read mind open eyes thirsting. Every chapter reveals all I have been taught. I am a life of first and second drafts, constant edits and revisions. A published author of many volumes.

And just as the sun leads way into the unknown at the end of each day so too, I must kindle the teacher within to launch the bestseller I am.

The unspoken can be spoken through poetry at the “Healing Through Poetry” workshop during the Milford Readers and Writers Festival, with poets Ann E. Wallace, David Richard, and Michelle Oram, on Sunday, September 15th, 1:00–2:15 p.m. at The Waterwheel, Milford, PA.

Michelle Oram lives in Honesdale, PA. When not singing or writing, she can be found spending precious moments with her family. For more information, check out her website michelleoram.com.

Photo courtesy of Michelle Oram

Top right: West Sononma County vista. Bottom left: Redwoods with blue sky.

Bottom right: Redwoods with smoky red sky. Photos courtesy of Manjula Martin

Fire, Pain, and the Magical Place

Wildfires—Up Close

The Last Fire Season: A Personal and Pyronatural History is a memoir and a natural history about one woman’s experience, living through the California wildfires of 2020.

Author Manjula Martin poetically weaves the narrative of the fires, including details on their causes, locations, and effects, together with her own story of relationships, pain, and anxiety. She shares her personal challenges and life’s contradictions, within the framework of time and the universal concern about changes in our environment and climate. All of this takes place during Covid, a time when we were told it was safer to be outside and away from people, while the lightning-induced California wildfires and ash-polluted air made it safer to be inside.

Nancy Pinchot will lead a discussion with Martin about the book at the Grey Towers Pool Terrace in Milford, PA, during the Milford Readers and Writers Festival on Saturday, September 14th from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Martin, a child of California hippies, was delivered by her father in a trailer in a redwood forest in the mid 1970s. She had wonderful parents who encouraged her to care for the world around her, admitting that she was raised “to be politically aware, recognize injustice, and mistrust dominant systems.”

Her father is a university horticulturist who manages an organic garden and writes. Martin had many formative experiences in her father’s garden, which helped develop her beliefs about how humans fit into the ecosystem. In an early collaboration with his daughter, her father wrote that gardening is not a form of creation, but rather an act of intervention. Proper winter pruning of a deciduous tree, for instance, can lead to more vibrant future growth.

Martin suffers from chronic pain as a result of complications from earlier surgeries. She describes the condition and her attempts to manage it in detail. She visited various doctors and specialists and tried different painkillers and natural remedies. Little worked. She finds pleasure in gardening, she says, because “Flowers were the only thing that felt good.”

In life, expected outcomes are not always met. Our attempt to guide nature may have good intentions, but not always the desired results.

I had the opportunity to interview Martin, and she explained that during her freshman year of high school, she lived through a major earthquake. The consequences of

the natural disaster created a “feeling of displacement” and, subsequently, in her teens and twenties, she lived in many different places and felt “rootless.” She went to college for a year and dropped out, believing that there must be other ways of living.

In October 2020, as fire season got underway, she was writing about her own health crisis and women’s bodies. Martin decided to keep notes about the fire on a Gmail thread to herself for a separate essay she thought she might someday write. When a friend suggested that she combine the two writing efforts, the nexus for The Last Fire Season was born. She tells me that she wrote very quickly because she did not want to prolong re-living the events of that time. She sold the book idea within a year of beginning to write.

When I ask why she wrote the book, Martin answers that she was frustrated with the existing climate change narrative. She felt compelled to write her memoir and connect the times to everyday climate change events through culture, emotion, and feelings that were less quantifiable.

In The Last Fire Season, Martin addresses many topics. There are physical science lessons on subjects including fire, lightning, gardening, horticulture, geology, weather, and climate. There are history lessons on the settlement of California, the plight of Indigenous Nations, and the extraction of resources including timber, gold, and oil.

Since childhood, Martin had thought of giant California coastal redwoods as her protectors. They can live to be 2,000 years old and 300 feet tall; they are unique to her area of California and define certain communities.

The redwood’s evolutionary adaptations reduce the likelihood of burning. They live in damp environments and absorb condensation through their leaves, depending on coastal fog for much of their water. Their shield-like, footthick bark contains high amounts of tannins, which cause the red coloring and are fire resistant, and low amounts of sap, which is a fire accelerant. Still, the redwoods can burn, and they did in the 2020 fires.

Not all forest fires are bad, she states. Indigenous people employed “good fire” practices for millennia. These are intentional, managed burns designed to decrease the likelihood of larger harmful wildfires by removing dead underbrush that served as fuel. These fires also cleared land for crops and drove out game for food. As the indigenous people were displaced, their cultural practices and knowledge of the land was lost.

When the US Forest Service was established in 1905, fire prevention was the primary goal. A huge network of roads, which interfered with animal crossings, was built throughout public lands to provide access in order to extinguish fires quickly. By attempting to extinguish every fire, over the years there was a tremendous buildup of underbrush and material available to fuel the current wild fires.

In her book, Martin shares her feelings about pain, loneliness, hope, recovery, and lack of control. She effectively recreates the stressful conditions that contribute to her anxiety during fire season: drought, lightning without rain, and the constant concern about evacuating (Is the go-bag ready?). Also, sirens, busy roads, lots of people, Covid, her asthma, her older parents living in a nearby town, and her ever-present pain, made worse by stress.

NATURAL THOUGHTS

l About migrant farm workers, Martin’s husband notes, “It’s so ridiculous how we call farm workers workers and not farmers. Indigenous migrants have so much knowledge about the land, if anyone would listen to them.”

l On climate, she says “Climate migration, in which people are displaced due to extreme weather, natural disaster or unlivable conditions is predicted to be the biggest crisis in human history.”

l About a burned and recovered manzanita tree, Martin’s acquaintance Thea, a wildfire survivor herself, asks, “So is a tree as old as its wood or as old as its roots?”

She explains, “(the) near non-stop emergency mindset… (caused a) sense of removal that approached numbness…I was performing the tasks of my life, not living.”

As opposed to bailing out and relocating in the face of fire danger, Martin and her husband were “the stay and fight” type of people. On the question of leaving, she says, “Evacuation from a disaster was never simply a matter of removing oneself and staying put until it was safe to go home again. Evacuation was a constant state of motion, an evolving equation of risk, comfort, and resources.”

Martin is curious. She asks questions. She does not always find answers. She draws many parallels between the two primary themes of her book. “Like fire, pain seemed alive,” she says. And on their respective severity scales, she asks, “How did one measure wildfire?” Rate of spread, acres contained, number of aircraft used, structures burned, acres burned, lives lost, economic loss? “There was no scale with which to express what fire did, how it moved, the lives it touched, the ecosystems it interacted with…Quantifying fire was as futile as quantifying pain.”

She ridicules the subjectivity of the standard pain scale that asks the patient to rate pain from 0 (no pain) to 10 (worst pain). There is a different baseline for each person as each person tolerates pain differently. Nobody can know how much pain somebody else is feeling, let alone communicate that feeling. And, she wonders, for one with chronic pain, should the baseline be shifted?

Martin shares wisdom, curiosity, and opinions on many topics. She is efficient with her diction. While telling her story of fire and pain, she caused me, many times, to stop and think.

In closing, I asked about her favorite plants. She says she never picks favorites, but she loves the majestic redwood trees and is grateful for the “original rose bush” at her house, which has “the best smell and is so tough.” Her father says it is a 1990s variety.

The beautiful fire poppy flower “that shone tangerine” graces the cover of the book. Its seeds lay dormant only to sprout after a fire. Martin is amazed that, by definition, the presence of a fire-following plant means that fire had been there before. She writes, “Fire was a killer and a care-giver.”

Majula Martin’s next work will be a historical novel about art and beauty, in which two sisters take different paths in life during a difficult, oppressive time. Ticket information about her appearance at the Milford Readers and Writers Festival can be found at milfordreadersandwriters.com.

Bob Chernow is a geologist who recently retired from teaching and enjoys gardening and spending time outdoors in Swartswood Lake, NJ.

Manjula Martin beneath an old growth redwood

with burn scars.

Photo by Max Aler

Aries (March 20-April 19) – A combination of factors is offering you one of the most social and creative times of the year. I suggest you play and explore all that you can, and learn how to make these things a priority. Be present for what is in your immediate surroundings. Get good at questioning everything. When Saturn and Neptune move into your sign next year, you will be happy you have mastered some of these skills. Develop your game — well before the 2025 astrological Olympics.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) – You may be in one of those restless moments where it seems like the whole world is stirring inside you. Your chart looks like you may be worried but know there is nothing to be concerned about; you may be feeling deep desire but are unsure what you want. You could be feeling something is missing, though you’re not sure what. You could easily align with your inner drive and channel all that energy — it would take no time. Keep your hands and mind busy with what matters to you.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) – As Pluto dips out of Aquarius and back into Capricorn for the last time over the next 10 or so weeks, you will be reminded what it feels like to be subjected to situations that we could call faithless. That means where you have no power, or where others seem to have all the influence. You may have to make one last decision to establish your independence from some cryptical forces, the life of an ex, or the life of your in-laws. This is your business and nobody else’s.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) – Transform any concerns you may have about money directly into business ideas, or a plan to be more visible and accessible. Retrieve pre-existing plans you may have set aside, dust them off and consider their potential value. Use any anxiety you may experience and transform it into some form of creative action — such as working on your business plan, or some form of establishing and developing your value. Your sign has Leo on its money house — the sign of gold. Always remember that.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) – The Sun, the Leo luminary, is in your sign, serving as a reminder of all that you desire and want to accomplish. But first, take a moment and thank yourself for your devoted efforts of the past year, which have taken you a long way from where you were a year before that. Mark your progress. Go back to your emails, photos, or whatever, and remember where you were on this day in 2023. Admit that you have done something with your life, and continue doing so.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) – How much can you take for granted? Most things in life are not really entitlements. Often people serve the role of someone who can be held to account, who owes you something, or who may have taken something from you in the past. None of this has anything to do with love, respect or affection. If you want those experiences, then a different approach will be necessary. It’s fair to ask why anyone who is in your life is there.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) – The way you learn what is true is you find out — personally and directly. You cannot be told; you cannot read the truth; you cannot learn it in a workshop or from a therapist or clairvoyant. But you can certainly do what you must to find out what is real, what has validity, what matters. And you do this by entering your life situations with your mind open, ready to converse with the people you meet. Question everything that comes into your field of perception.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) – The Sun is in your fellow fixed sign Leo, which is a stabilizing force in your chart. Leo inspires you to reach upward, and to aspire to do great or even greater things. You want steady, lasting, durable accomplishments. You want to provide heat and light for the world around you. Therefore, set the example you would see others follow. This is stepping into your true role as a teacher, which is always about being an exemplar. Such calls for consistency between your words and your deeds.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) – You have reached a point in your growth and maturity where it’s appropriate to ask the big question of what you’re really doing on Earth. Yet to enter this territory requires you to confront difficult questions, many of which have their roots in the distant past. For you, meaning is everything, and for you and all humans, it’s often elusive. It’s something that you must define for yourself, without respect to whether what matters the very most to you matters to anyone else.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) – Pay special attention to your health this month, by which I mean your general state of wellbeing. The way the Capricorn solar chart is set up, most matters of health and wellness come back to your mental state. So take care of your mind, much of which means taking care of your body. You may not realize it, but you’re carrying a lot of responsibility right now, and your quality of life depends on your ability to handle it deftly.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) – There is a matter to consider, which is the nature of how you perceive your original commitment to someone, and theirs to you. It’s likely that you have different concepts of what this commitment is, and what it means. That is the most significant matter in any relationship, whether the partnering is for personal or business purposes. What is the nature of the agreement? It’s likely that someone in your life has evolved their views, or is considering a different approach.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) – People are unlikely to live up to your expectations this month, so it will be better not to have any. And invitations or seeming openings into intimate relating would best be taken with healthy skepticism and a wait-andsee approach. The fact that someone may seem to have a high standard is not a promise or an offer. It’s not necessarily a sign of integrity. Therefore, stay in good standing with yourself, and recognize your own needs, intentions and desires.