Robin Catalano believes in the power of storytelling to connect communities and cultures. She’s applied her creative approach to writing for magazines, books, blogs, websites, and a wide variety of marketing projects, and has published more than 75 articles and 1,000+ blog posts. As an editor, she has worked on more than 350 books for publishers including Penguin Random House, Workman, and Simon & Schuster. She has also served as a book coach for independent authors, helping them take their ideas from concept to print. An avid traveler and travel writer, Robin lives, reads, and writes voraciously in upstate NY.
An Arapaho proverb says, “All plants are our brothers and sisters. They talk to us, and if we listen, we can hear them.” It’s an elegantly simple explanation of the interconnectedness of life on and with earth—a central belief in most, if not all, indigenous traditions.
Basquiat x Warhol documents, through more than 100 works, the evolution of the two famed artists and their complicated relationship in the last years of their life.
Based on outer appearances, you might be tempted to lump Gloucester in with other picturesque coastal areas of the Northeast. But this would be a mistake. Photo by Robin Catalano.
Kyle Abraham is looking for something. The multi-award-winning choreographer and MacArthur Fellow brings his company, A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, and his signature search for identity and struggle with personal and societal emotional trauma to Jacob’s Pillow this week; photo by Grace Kathryn Landefeld.
At Jabob's Pillow this weekend, The Happiness Project explores the energy humans dedicate to social and material gain, asking questions about motivations and suggesting outcomes.
Photo by Grace Kathryn Landefeld.
A few facts you might not know about hot-air balloons: it’s hot—as in, skin-prickling hot—riding directly beneath their burners. Hot-air balloons also rise off the ground a lot faster than you’d think, and can vertically travel 10 feet or more per second.
If you've never been to Portland, Maine, you'll be amazed at how this just-right sized city hums with activity in the arts, dining, entertainment, and (of course) miles and miles of gorgeous views.
The City of Portland, Maine rises above the waters of Portland Harbor, which is filled with sailing vessels and pleasure boats. The landmark Time and Temperature building can be seen, reading 5:39; photo by Benjamin Williamson.
Like most of the civilized world, I’ve zealously planted
myself in front of the TV on Sunday nights for the past eight years to watch Game of Thrones unfold. I’ve largely
enjoyed it, at least up until the rush-to-the-finish seasons 7 and 8, which
have packed far too much character development and time hopping into a handful
of episodes (how did Jaime Lannister and
Arya Stark get to King’s Landing so quickly?), in an effort to tie up loose
ends dangled but not yet resolved by author George R.…
The Mount as Edith Wharton’s Feminist Manifesto
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The lush, stone-walled Italian Garden at The Mount provides a respite from Northeastern summer heat and humidity; early morning photo by Kevin Sprague.
Editors Note: What does it mean when we say that someone is a “pillar of the community?” How you answer depends a lot on your experiences and intersections with the people who, in your mind, help support and strengthen the areas of local life that are most important to us. In this new series, we’ll surely tread some well worn paths in search of those personalities. We’ll blaze new trails looking for emerging leaders, as well as expand our vision of where to look for these pillars of our community.…
The morning
sun reflects off the remnants of a hard crust of snow with a luminous quality that
makes the towns of Ghent and Chatham, New York, appear suffused by stage
lights. It’s been a long winter—about six months’ worth, by most people’s
accounts, though they use much more colorful language; like the Inuit and their
multiple words for snow, residents of upstate New York have a remarkable array
of vivid, sometimes profane, epithets for the season. On this 50-degree day in
March, the first hint that winter is finally releasing its skeletal grip on the
region, people are emerging from their woodstove-warmed saltboxes and Cape Cods,
primed and ready to enjoy the landscape and a sun no longer obscured by clouds
heavy with the promise of more white stuff.…
On a swell of
immigration that began in the 1640s and continued all the way through (and
beyond) the Great Famine of the mid-nineteenth century, Irish immigrants made a
place for themselves in large Eastern United States port cities like New York
and Boston. But as jobs became less plentiful, many branched out, heading up
the Hudson River from New York City and landing in the newly prosperous
manufacturing centers in Troy and Albany. According to
Discover Albany, thanks to this influx, the city currently boasts the
fourth-largest Irish population in the country.…
