Events for: 2022-2023

Paul Marion has been a writer and community activist since the 1970s. He is the author of several collections of poetry as well as the editor of the early writings of Jack Kerouac, Atop an Underwood, and other titles. His recent book, Lockdown Letters & Other Poems, begins with the Covid pandemic and expands to subjects like travel, Space, and sports. His Union River: Poems and Sketches (2017), spans 40 years of work and offers a lyrical Americana address for our dramatic time. Among other accomplishments on the community front, he co-founded the Lowell Folk Festival and Lowell Heritage Partnership, an alliance of people and organizations whose mission is to care for architecture, nature, and culture.

“The Greek Connection: The Life of Elias Demetracopoulos and the Untold Story of Watergate” is the internationally acclaimed biography of a controversial journalist and freedom fighter who relentlessly battled for democracy, honor and survival against abusive Greek and American governments trying to destroy him. There are Greater Lowell and Massachusetts elements to the saga, which includes the first-ever detailed profile of Greek-American tycoon Tom Pappas. This compelling narrative sheds new light on historic 20^th century events. Doris Kearns Goodwin called it “a magnificent work.” The Washington Post described it as “cinematic.” Author James H. Barron is a Massachusetts attorney, journalist, university lecturer, and a founding board member of the New England Center for Investigative Reporting. For more information check out thegreekconnectionbook.com.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a mayor? Well after serving three terms as a mayor and being a local and regional government official for over thirty-five years I think I know. So I wrote this book to pull the curtain back just enough to let you peak in and know as well. and how public engagement can be a full contact sport. It is a fascinating life with funny memories and memorable events that leads to a rewarding life.

What was life really like for women in early New England? The answer may surprise you. Historian/author Michelle Marchetti Coughlin (One Colonial Woman's World: The Life and Writings of Mehetabel Chandler Coit, Penelope Winslow: Plymouth Colony First Lady: Re-Imagining a Life) will explore not only the many challenges and constraints women faced, but also the opportunities they embraced and the important roles they played in their communities. She will also address the unique experiences of Native and African-American women.

Artist Linda Hoffman saved an orchard and reshaped her life at Old Frog Pond in Harvard, Mass. When she moved to the farm, she didn’t know anything about apple-growing. More than 20 years later, the farm is one of the few organic pick-your-own orchards in New England, as well as a hub for a thriving community of visual artists, writers, and spiritual seekers. Hoffman, a Zen practitioner, and a breast cancer survivor, has now written about her extraordinary journey.

Please join us on November 10, 2022, at 5pm at the Richard & Nancy Donahue Academic Arts Centre at MCC, 240 Central Street in Lowell, for the presentation of the  first Patrick J. Mogan Learning City award to William Samaras, former Lowell Mayor, City Council member and educator.

This celebration will also recognize winners of the recent writing competition, Atlantic Currents II, a collaboration between the learning cities of Lowell and Cork. In 2019 Lowell City of Learning completed a project whose objective was to create connections between two communities (the cities of Lowell, Massachusetts, US and Cork, Ireland) committed to the values and goals of the Learning Cities program of UNESCO. Writers associated with Cork and Lowell were asked to contribute fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama, criticism, experimental and mash-up forms on any subject, bearing in mind community standards for humane expression. We had many excellent submissions that resulted in the inclusion of a wide range of writing and poetry by some 40+ authors in an anthology, Atlantic Currents: Connecting Cork and Lowell, published in April 2020 by Loom Press of Lowell, Massachusetts.

To continue to promote and support creative and experiential writing, we created a similar anthology containing work written by students and any alumni of the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML) and University College Cork (UCC). The submissions were reviewed and judged by writers from Lowell and Cork. Our judges in the US and Ireland selected 18 prizewinners from some 90+ submissions. Prizewinners were grouped into alumni and current students at the two universities. That several first, second, and third prizes were tied speaks to the quality of the submissions. In addition to these prizes and the recognition of our winners, their work is published in Atlantic Currents II Connecting Cork and Lowell.

This writing contest would not have been possible without a generous grant from Independent University Alumni Association of the University of Massachusetts Lowell and the financial support of the President’s Office of University College Cork, Ireland.

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"Put It Down on Paper is the charming, poignant tale of Phil Primack’s unflagging search for the woman who would otherwise have been lost to history—and of that woman’s fortitude and passion. Mary Folsom Blair comes to us directly, in her diary, where she speaks with courage and candor of her love of nature and of writing. Part detective story, part coming of age tale, and part journal, this is a chronicle of a writer’s need to know and a woman’s resilience told with grace, wit, and intelligence." - Brenda Wineapple

Part of Lowell Celebrates Kerouac Festival. J.C. Cloutier is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the editor of La vie est d’hommage (2016, 2022), which gathers the original French writings of Jack Kerouac’s French novels for the Library of America’s The Unknown Kerouac (2016, edited by Todd Tietchen). He is currently completing an extensive study of Kerouac’s oeuvre that explores the writer’s practices as a novelist, translator, and archivist.

Like his contemporaries Twain and Whitman, Homer captured the landscape of a rapidly changing country with an artist’s probing insight. His tale is one of America in all its complexity and contradiction, as he evolved and adapted to the restless spirit of invention transforming his world. In Winslow Homer: American Passage, William R. Cross reveals the man behind the art. It is the surprising story of a life led on the front lines of history.

Medicine in the Victorian Age has a lot to tell us about today’s world: how we handle a pandemic, and how far medicine has come. Prepare to gasp, cringe and chuckle, as you discover the horrifying practices and milestones discoveries that characterize turn of-the-century medicine. Join us as Janet Parnes, will be portraying Miss Myrtle Mills, takes us on this in person exploration of practices that defy today’s medical sense.

In 1861, approximately 1000 men from Massachusetts answered the call from their country and marched off to war to keep the Union together. The 12^th Massachusetts fought in just about every major battle in the Eastern Theater of Operations against the Army of Northern Virginia.  The 12^th Massachusetts suffered more than any regiment, but continued to demonstrate their honor and bravery right up to when they were pulled off the front lines in 1864. The 12^th was led by two citizen soldiers, Fletcher Webster, son of Daniel Webster and James L. Bates, who led the regiment after Fletcher was killed in his first action.

Screams of Delight! Howls of Laughter! Unbelievable Energy & Excitement! These are common symptoms of witnessing first-hand Bonaparté’s Award-Winning Magic Concert! Plus…as an added bonus, the show includes the dramatic appearance of a fluttering white Dove and an adorable fuzzy Bunny!

With magic, merry mayhem, and magnificent props, the audience is taken on a trip throughout the mesozoic era. How do we know dinosaurs were here? What is a fossil? How are they made? This program is fun and informative for all ages.

Since its inception in 1992, the Hot Tamale Brass Band has led the way in Boston for energetic, fun New Orleans Jazz, Dixieland and Second Line Music. They have performed at Mardi Gras, Boston First Night, the Honk! Festival, and over 800 times at Red Sox games at Fenway Park. They have appeared on Sesame Street. Get ready for a Kids Mardi Gras Parade!