The other day someone asked Jessica Livingston if she planned weddings. “Absolutely not,” was her smiling reply. However, as leader of the Concord Arts Market, Livingston achieves something close to it when, before each event, she maps out where a gathering of art vendors will share space.
It’s something she’ll do Oct. 10 in Rollins Park, at the season-ending Arts in the Park.
“I know all of the artists, but they don’t necessarily know each other; I know who’d be a good fit,” she said recently. “Sometimes I’ll do the layout and I’ll be like, ‘Oh, I bet they’re going to really hit it off.’ Then I look forward to the end when I find out that they became best friends.”
Livingston took the reins at Concord Arts Market in the fall of 2024, after years of selling there.
Like any good reception planner, Livingston juggles more than personalities. Setup times are staggered, so morning doesn’t become a traffic jam. She also ensures soap makers aren’t in direct sunlight, and that older vendors have a shorter walk to their booth.
“I enjoy doing it,” she said, adding, “Sometimes it’s challenging.”
Though not all the crafty wares are handmade, everything must be created by vendors in some way, from pottery to digital art. Livingston tries to book diverse vendors and plan for contingencies. When, say, several potters sign up, she makes sure their styles differ and they’re spaced apart.
Liz McBride of Elm Art, Livingston’s elementary school art teacher and always Mrs. McBride, is known for goddess mugs shaped like a woman’s body. McBride also makes earrings from clay scraps. In a similar vein, Emerson Street Pottery offers feminist pieces. “They’re a little irreverent but really popular,” Livingston said.
Danbury Woodworking will offer handmade wine bottle holders and seasonally appropriate wooden pumpkins. At an early market his booth neighbor, a maker of wooden jewelry, became one of his customers. Freddie’s Toy Box has feline toys and a cat with an Instagram account (@fred.e.meowcury) lounging on the merch table.
Some pairings have become fixtures.
Livingston points to Saad Hindal, an Iraqi-born painter whose whimsical scenes of Concord have made him a local icon, and painter Jeff Newman.
“I always put them next to each other, because they have such good synergy,” she said. “They’ll do paintings of each other … it just creates a nice little energy for the market.”
It’s connections like that, more than any single moment, that are most satisfying for Livingston. “Friendships and the opportunity to be part of a community that people love,” she said, adding she does love the work. “It’s not a bad day if you have to sit out in a sunny park all afternoon on a Saturday. There are worse jobs.”
As someone who began as a vendor, Livingston makes a point of bringing new artists into the fold. First-timers get their initial booth free, and newbies frequently end up nearby.
“At my first market, I had no idea what I was doing,” she recalled. “So I usually put them next to me so that I can help them out throughout the day.”
Music and charity are also part of the final market. Celtic band Cara will play, and the New Hampshire Immigrant Mutual Aid Fund will sell donated handmade goods to raise money for legal help for immigrants facing court dates. Livingston will also collect food and snack donations to distribute where they’re needed.
Finally, a group of South End neighbors who treat Rollins Park as a sanctuary will lead a session on putting a garden to bed and saving seeds for flowers to feed bees and butterflies when spring comes. The group had struggled to get permission to gather in the park, so Livingston invited them to join the market under its existing permits.
The market runs rain or shine, mostly. Her first solo Arts in the Park in 2025 was beset by flooding downpours, and Livingston nearly threw in the towel. She powered through, though, also learning to respect genuine weather threats like high winds or lightning. “Knock on wood, it’s going to be beautiful,” she said.
Arts in the Park When: Saturday, Oct. 10, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Where: Rollins Park, Concord (parking at 33 Bow St.) More: concordartsmarket.org
Cheesy dips and tasty accompaniments to make any snack session a party
In October, the MLB post-season, NBA pre-season and season start and WNBA playoffs share the airways with NFL and college football, professional and college soccer and the NHL. Game days are a great excuse for a game-day spread of eats — not quite a meal but still hearty and delicious.
CHEESY DIP
It’s hard to go wrong with cheese, and that theory extends to dips.
At Firefly Bistro in Manchester the most popular dish has long been an appetizer that works on the melty cheese and dippable item principle. And it proves that even a funkier cheese can make a crowd-pleasing dip.
“The dish is called Gogo Bread,” said David Becker, the chef and owner of Firefly Bistro. The appetizer is a Gorgonzola fondue served with warm garlic bread.
“It’s been on the menu since we opened, and it’s been consistently the best-selling menu item we’ve had in the 17 years we’ve been open,” he said.
“It’s a warm and comforting dish,” Becker said. “The bread itself is a rustic loaf bread. It’s studded with whole cloves of roasted garlic. We slice that thin and we grill it up and we serve that to be dipped into the Gorgonzola fondue. The Gorgonzola fondue itself is basically a bechamel sauce with a whole bunch of Gorgonzola folded into it. It’s not just a pile of melted Gorgonzola. We make it with milk and butter and flour and other ingredients. So it sort of mellows it out a little bit and makes it a little more user-friendly. And I think it would be kind of like a bit of a kick in the face if it were just a ramekin full of just straight melted Gorgonzola.”
Parmesan Basil Dip
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, cubed
4 cloves of garlic, minced
8 ounces (225 g) shredded Parmesan or Romano cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper — regular fresh-ground black pepper will work just as well, but white pepper makes for a prettier color
2 teaspoons hot honey
1/2 cup (115 g) whole milk
A large handful of fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped
Melt the butter over medium heat in a saucepan. When it gets foamy, whisk in the garlic, then the cream cheese. Keep whisking until it has all melted together.
Whisk in the Parmesan or Romano cheese, salt and pepper, then whisk that until they have melted and/or incorporated, and drizzle in the milk and hot honey. Reduce the heat to low, and continue whisking until the mixture is creamy and not quite simmering. Remove from the heat, and stir in the basil.
Serve warm.
CHEESE & BEER
Davis Smith is a chef and bartender with Bert’s Beer & Wine in Manchester.
“This is the time of year when we [make] warm dips of various types,” he said, adding that beer and cheese have a natural affinity.
“Beer and cheese go together perfectly for a lot of reasons,” Smith said “Most folks think that the best pairing out there is wine and cheese. Fun fact — actually not. Beer pairs better because it has more of those savory fermented notes than wine typically does. Both [beer and cheese] go through the same process, fermentation, when you produce them. So they have a lot of the same complementary notes, but they also mirror each other in certain ways that they just pair perfectly.”
Beer is thus a good accompaniment to cheese, both as a beverage and as an ingredient.
“Whenever you’re looking at just the cheese on its own,” Smith said, “you usually want to try and have something that will balance it out. So one of the best things out there, if you are trying to make a very sharp cheddar cheese-based thing, is a hoppy beer like an IPA. The hops balance out that sharpness and the sharpness of the cheddar cuts through the funk of the hops. So that’s why I recommend always a good IPA with a cheeseburger. It cuts through the fattiness and it works well with the cheese that’s on it. If you’re looking for something a bit lighter, something like a more traditional, like light-bodied beer cheese or queso, something like a light lager might be a better fit because there’s less going on there. The cheese is more forward. The beer lets the cheese do the talking. So it really depends on what you’re going for.”
“So,” he said, “I think for a classic tavern beer cheese, you cannot go wrong with a good quality mild cheddar. You don’t want to go all the way to sharp. You want to have it still be a little bit rounded. And a good, slightly hoppy IPA. because you’re looking to have something that is warm and inviting and tasty without being in-your-face, taking over the meal. You want to look out for something like a single-hopped IPA. If you really want to push the envelope a little bit, you can go to something like a double IPA that will have a richer depth of flavor.”
The sharper the cheese, the more hops and bitterness it can work with, he said.
Cheese and Beer Dip
Cheese and Beer Dip is a pub classic. This dip goes well, drinking-wise, with beer, of course, and, dipping-wise, with soft pretzels.
2 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons flour
3/4 cup (170 g) whole milk
2/3 cup (150 g) beer — what kind of beer depends on how sharp the cheese is. If you use a mild cheddar, use a slightly hoppy IPA (if the label just says “IPA” or “single IPA”, that’s what you’re looking for). The sharper the cheddar, the hoppier the beer can be. Some beers label themselves as “double” or even “triple-IPA.” If you’re just using regular Pilsner, go with a mild cheddar.
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard — this is what is called an “emulsifier”; it helps oily/fatty ingredients mix together with water-based ones, like in a salad dressing.
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
Pinch of salt
Shred your cheddar.
In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in the flour and let it cook, stirring more or less constantly. You are making what is called a “roux..” This will thicken your dip. The darker you cook it, the less it will thicken the liquid, but the more flavor it will have. Let it darken at least a little. A good rule of thumb is that it should be the same shade you like your toast.
Whisk in the milk, and continue whisking until the mixture thickens and comes to a simmer (not quite boiling). Whisk in the beer and the seasonings (everything but the cheese).
Remove the pan from the heat, and stir in the shredded cheese. Keep stirring until it has all melted and been incorporated into the sauce. Which is now a dip.
CHEESE, MEET SPINACH
While you can always serve a cheesy dip with vegetables for dipping purposes, there is also tastiness to be had from introducing veggies to the dip itself.
Jon Carnevale is proud of his espinaca. He is the owner of the Shorty’s Mexican Roadhouse restaurants in Nashua and Manchester, and he said the Tex-Mex spinach dip is one of the most popular items on their menu.
Espinaca from Shorty’s Mexican Roadhouse. Courtesy photo.
“We have a lot of stuff on the Shorty’s menu that kind of caters to that [warm, creamy texture]” Carnevale said. “No. 1, we’ve got our espinaca that’s been kind of world famous for 40+ years now. It’s been kind of a staple. It’s really our signature item here at Shorty’s. People have tried to recreate it, but never quite exactly the same. We’ve got the patent on that. Some of it has to do with the fact that it’s been around for so long and it’s familiar; a lot of people like that — it brings back a lot of good memories for a lot of people, and, you know, they tend to come back over and over again just to kind of have that happen. And then, you know, it’s just delicious. It’s warm. It’s got a little bit of heat to it. It’s got a lot of different factors in the flavors that are really, really desirable this time of year.”
The secret to a good spinach dip, Carnevale said, is to use the spinach itself as a supporting ingredient.
“There’s not too much spinach in [our espinaca], but there’s enough to feel good about yourself when you’re eating it,” he said. “I think it just adds a little bit of focus to the dip, so it’s not too overpoweringly fatty or cheesy. It really kind of brings [the dish] into focus.”
Carnevale said fall is a good time to introduce new, warm dips at his restaurants.
“We have a specials menu coming out that’s going to have kind of a variant on [our espinaca],” he said. “We [make] a street corn dip as well. Just like everything else at Shorty’s, we roast our own street corn in-house. We roast it off with some garlic, some cotija cheese and some mayo. We add a little bit of espinaca to it and a little bit of cream cheese, just to give it that roundness. We serve it with chips, and it’s great. It’s warm. It’s filling and comforting. You get a little crunch from the chips. It’s just a good, a great fall dish.”
Espinaca
This is not the recipe for Shorty’s espinaca, but a DIY homage to it.
16 ounces (450 g) white American cheese or Velveeta, chopped or cubed
1 8-ounce package cream cheese
1/2 cup (10 ounces, or 280 g) frozen, chopped spinach that has been thawed and squeezed dry
1 10-ounce can Rotel diced tomatoes with green chilies, drained
1/2 cup (115 g) whole or evaporated milk
1/2 medium white or yellow onion, finely chopped
2 cubes of chicken bouillon
1/4 cup (2 Tablespoons) minced jalapeño chilis
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
Cayenne pepper to taste
In a large saucepan, combine the cheese and milk over medium-low heat, and stir until it is completely melted, combined and smooth. Stir in the chopped onion, drained tomatoes, bullion cubes and minced chilies. Continue to stir, until the bullion cubes have dissolved completely.
Fold in the spinach, garlic powder and cayenne pepper, and bring to a serving temperature, not a boil. Serve immediately and hot, with tortilla chips.
Spinach and Artichoke Dip
This is possibly the queen of warm dips.
1 8-ounce package of cream cheese
1/4 cup (57 g) mayonnaise
1/2 cup (50 g) grated Italian cheese — Parmesan, Romano, or a mixture
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder — this will give you a second type of garlic flavor
1 teaspoon of dried, aromatic herbs — basil, thyme, sage, etc.
Salt and pepper to taste
1 14-ounce can of artichoke hearts or bottoms, drained and chopped
1/2 cup (100 g) frozen, chopped spinach that you have thawed and squeezed the liquid out of
1/2 cup (55 g) shredded (by you) mozzarella cheese
Preheat your oven to 350°F.
Grease a small baking dish.
In a mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese, mayonnaise, grated cheese and seasonings. An electric mixer or a wooden spoon will work for this.
Gently mix in the spinach and chopped artichokes. This should be done by hand. Spoon. Whatever. An electric mixer would pulverize them. Transfer the mixture to the baking dish, and sprinkle the shredded mozzarella cheese on top.
Bake for about 25 minutes, until the top is slightly browned.
THE DIPPABLES
Chips — corn and/or potato, depending on your preference and the flavors you’re working with — serve as a time-tested dip delivery method. Here are some more items that can stand up to a hearty dip.
Bagel Bites
Baking a really good homemade pretzel is a specialized skill. But a fried bagel piece is a solid alternative if you’re looking for something chewy to dip.
Savory bagels — This actually works with any variety of bagel, but since the goal here is to make something to dunk into cheese dip, you’re probably better off using onion or sesame bagels.
Some sort of spreadable fat — It could be margarine. If you’re feeling indulgent, butter is the classic choice. If you’re feeling adventurous, it could be mayonnaise. If you’re feeling indulgent and adventurous, bacon grease will be another revelation.
Cut each bagel into eight pieces. Cut it once horizontally across the middle, like a hamburger bun, and then vertically into quarters.
Spread the flat, cut surface of each piece with the fat of your choice (see above).
Heat a skillet to medium heat, then fry the bagel pieces, face-down, like you would a grilled-cheese sandwich. Do not crowd the pan, which will change its temperature unpredictably. Do not be impatient and use too high a heat; neither you nor your smoke detector want to deal with burned butter or, worse, bacon fat.
Use tongs to check each bagel piece. When it is golden-brown and super-tempting, set it aside and replace it with one of the others that you have waiting to fry.
Serve these warm from the pan.
Toasted Ravioli
This is fast and flavorful and will bring you a shocking amount of validation from your friends and unexpected guests.
1 package of frozen mini-ravioli — how big a package is a matter of personal judgment. These tend to get snapped up pretty quickly, so you might want to buy a larger package than you initially think prudent.
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon butter
Smoked salt, optional — This is one of those ingredients that you might not have on hand, but if you ever run across some you should definitely pick some up. Unlike many spices, it will never go bad, and it makes a tomato sandwich sing.
Heat a large skillet over medium heat, then add the vegetable oil and butter.
Add “some” ravioli to the heated pan. This will work well with thawed ravioli, but surprisingly, frozen ravioli will work almost as well. Don’t crowd the pan, so you can keep the heat consistent. After a few minutes — four, to pick a number out of the air — check the bottom of each raviolo, and flip it when it is golden brown. As with the bagel bites, replace each raviolo with a raw one from the bullpen.
Season these with smoked salt, if you have it, then serve them warm and toasty, with any dip.
Kimchi Pancakes
Pancake batter made from your favorite mix
1/2 to 3/4 cup of your favorite kimchee, chopped. This will vary, depending on your favorite type, brand and intensity of kimchee.
1 large shallot, finely chopped
Gochujang, a Korean hot condiment, to taste — optional
Vegetable oil for frying
Make a batch of pancake batter the way you normally would.
Add the chopped shallot, kimchee and gochujang, then stir thoroughly to combine.
Oil the pan and make pancakes, exactly as you would on a Sunday morning, just without the expectation of adding butter and maple syrup. Fry them a little more than you might normally, so they are a little darker than usual and crispy around the edges.
Before serving, cut the pancakes into cracker-sized pieces.
BALANCE
Those grocery store veggie trays are made for moments like these, when you need something crisp and not fried to balance melty cheese and fried or toasted dippable items. Round out your offerings with something that brings a little hit of sourness to your party.
Pickled apple slices
1 cup (225 g) water
1 cup (225 g) cider vinegar
3/4 cup (150 g) sugar
2 teaspoons pickling spice
1/2 teaspoon kosher or coarse sea salt
2 to 3 sweet, firm apples — I like Jazz or Fuji
2 cinnamon sticks
2 stars of star anise
Combine the water, vinegar, sugar, pickling spice and salt in a saucepan, and bring it to a simmer. Stir it occasionally, to make certain that the sugar and salt have completely dissolved.
Meanwhile, peel and slice the apples the way you would for your kids’ lunch box or soccer game. Place the slices in a mixing bowl and set them aside.
At about this time, your pickling liquid should be ready. If it has come to a boil, set it aside to cook for a couple of minutes.
Pour the pickling liquid through a strainer onto the apples.
Stir the apple slices to make sure that they are all completely covered with very warm pickling liquid. Add the cinnamon sticks and star anise.
The apple slices will probably want to float. Weigh them down with something — perhaps a slightly smaller mixing bowl half-filled with water.
Let the apples soak for at least half an hour — ideally longer — then strain them and serve them with your other dippables.
Though they’re still at the top of their game musically, Little Feat’s Oct. 2 appearance at Portsmouth’s Music Hall is likely their final one in the region. Their Last Farewell tour isn’t a hard stop, but cruises and residencies in hubs like Los Angeles, New York City and Nashville will be the only way to see the legendary band after this run ends.
“There’s an end point to jumping on the bus,” founding member Bill Payne said by phone recently.
As to why now, close to six decades after Lowell George and fellow Mothers of Invention member Roy Estrada recruited Payne and drummer Richie Hayward as the nucleus of a rootsy band that would produce timeless songs like “Willin’” and “Dixie Chicken,” Payne offered a cryptic, albeit practical, reply.
“Groucho Marx used to say, ‘I love my cigar, but I take it out every now and then,’” he explained. “I was resistant to the idea, to be honest with you, and then I began to say, ‘Travel’s travel.’ I just want to be able to play at a certain proficiency.”
That’s not a problem, based on accolades the tour is getting in places like Nashville. On Sept. 8 they made their Grand Ole Opry debut, then returned to the Ryman Auditorium the following night, where young acolytes Marcus King and Maggie Rose joined them, along with veteran guitarist Tommy Emmanuel, for a fiery second set.
It’s a victory lap, both for the band and Payne. The singer, songwriter and keyboard player has a lot going on.
He’ll begin work on a solo album in December.
“It looks like in Nashville,” he said. With a batch of songs from late Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, Paul Muldoon and Richard Wheeler, he’ll be joined by Emmanuel and Trey Hensley in the studio. Hopefully, Daniel Donato and Molly Tuttle will also pitch in.
Next year, Payne’s memoir, Carnival Ghosts, will be published. He promises an honest appraisal of his band, while noting, “it’s a fine line to watch … being truthful, but not harming people.” This applies especially to his old band mate, whose tragic end is more than well known.
“Lowell was a storyteller, and even at his most compromised, he was still writing songs like ‘Mercenary Territory’ and ‘Long Distance Love,’” Payne said. “He had this incredible gift. The sadness of course was he and others like him rolled off the edge, but he had so much to share with people. That beauty, it’s not going to be tarnished.”
A few in George’s orbit are treated less kindly, he added. “I am hurting some other people that I felt deserved it.”
Similarly balanced is Little Feat – The Documentary, released earlier this year and now on the film festival circuit. Directed by Jesse Lauter, who also helmed Learning To Live Together: The Return of Mad Dogs & Englishmen, it’s narrated by Jeff Bridges.
“I was thrilled with what Jesse Lauder came up with,” Payne said.
With the recent death of Estrada, Payne is the last surviving founding member of Little Feat. The group disbanded after George’s overdose death in 1979, reforming eight years later and making their comeback album Let It Roll in 1988. They’ve made multiple records since, though losing Hayward and guitarist Paul Barrere along the way.
Guitarist Scott Sharrard and drummer Tony Leone have stepped in for Barrere and Hayward, with results rivaling any version of the band; both possess unique talents in Payne’s view. “Somebody said it better than me: Tony’s not Richie Hayward, but Richie Hayward isn’t Tony Leone either.”
Payne is past seeing the two as new members.
“These guys are just wonderful musicians,” he said. “Tony studied Richie growing up, and Scott always wanted to be in Little Feat, even as a kid. Quite a few years ago I said to the guys, ‘You’re not auditioning for the band anymore, you’re in it. What do you want to do?’”
Little Feat When: Friday, Oct. 2, at 7 p.m. Where: The Music Hall, 28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth Tickets: $50 and up at themusichall.org
• Red Band: Two very different interpretations of Americana are on display as Matt Litzinger performs three songs each from The Band’s eponymous second album and Taylor Swift’s Red, followed by a few of his own original tunes. It’s part of an ongoing series called Live From The Countertop, where a local musician picks a pair of albums from the Billboard 100 to showcase. Thursday, Oct. 1, at 7 p.m., The Moka Pot, 8 Hanover St., Manchester, $5 at the door, mattlitzingermusic.com.
• Fugee flight: A group of self-confessed “music obsessed weirdos,” DiasporaRadio takes its Press Room covers show on the road, performing The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill in Manchester. The evening begins with music historian Zach Foote providing a backgrounder, followed by a “respectful but not reverent” recreation of the Fugees singer’s first solo flight by an all-star band. Friday, Oct. 2, 7:30 p.m., Rex Theatre, 23 Amherst St., Manchester, $34, palacetheatre.org.
• By request: Few tribute acts are like Yesterday and Today: An Interactive Beatles Experience, which builds a setlist from request cards filled out by the audience right before the show begins. Created by brothers Billy, Matthew and Ryan McGuigan to honor their late father, an Air Force veteran and Fab Four fan, it mixes memories with timeless music for a unique evening. Saturday, Oct. 3, at 7 p.m., Stockbridge Theatre, 44 N. Main St., Derry, $33 and up, pinkertonacademy.org.
• Book party: A comedian who can read the room for both laughs and emotional health, Jody Sloane performs a set and officially launches her first book. Hold The Field lays out a framework for understanding social situations without taking on other people’s problems in the process, with writing both relatable and helpful. Fellow comics Matt Barry and Jolanda Logan also appear. Saturday, Oct. 3, at 7 p.m., Headliners Comedy Club, 700 Elm St., Manchester, $20, ovationtix.com.
• Strange music: A New Hampshire sister act that’s one of rock’s weirdest stories is the subject of We Are The Shaggs, a documentary being screened in Epping. Forced to play by their father, the three daughters made a truly offbeat 1969 album that even tolerant denizens of Woodstock Nation couldn’t comprehend. In the ensuing years, Kurt Cobain and other artists cited the record as influential. Saturday, Oct. 3, at 2 p.m., Epping Playhouse, 38 Ladds Lane, Epping, free, reserve at tix.com.
NH Book Festival with Jodi Picoult, Jeff Kinney and 60-plus authors
The first New Hampshire Book Festival in 2024 began the way a lot of good stories do — with a simple question. Authors Emilie Christie Burack and Sarah McCraw Crow were writing together in the café at Gibson’s Bookstore, lamenting that the state had no book festival of its own.
“I just said out of the blue, why don’t we just do it?” Burack recalled in a recent Zoom interview. Both had attended plenty of festivals elsewhere and understood what one could do for a community. “It really brings people together in conversation about story,” she said.
Gibson’s sits across from Capitol Center for the Arts on South Main Street in Concord, so Burack only needed to look out the window to envision the layout. “You can’t have a book festival without a great indie bookstore,” she said. “And then having a venue is the other really important part.”
The third annual festival kicks off Friday, Oct. 2, with ticketed keynotes in the morning and evening. On Saturday, Oct. 3, more than 60 authors, poets and illustrators, up from about 40 in the first year, will gather together. Every invited writer has published a book within the past 12 months.
The festival has drawn big names since year one, when Because of Winn-Dixie author Kate DiCamillo headlined.
This year Hanover writer Jodi Picoult delivers the opening keynote Friday night, supporting her new novel, Hollow Bones. Jeff Kinney, Diary of a Wimpy Kid creator, appears twice. He’s at the (already sold out) Children’s Keynote on Friday morning, and Saturday’s Family Keynote, which closes the festival.
The Friday children’s event is the festival’s heart. Transportation grants help Title I schools bus students in from as far as the North Country, and every child leaves with a new book autographed by the author.
“Some educators have told us that it’s often the very first brand-new book that ever comes into a child’s home,” Burack said.
Each year the program has sold out to schools within two hours. Panels aren’t built around predetermined themes. Instead, organizers look for common threads among a flood of applications. “It’s almost like seating at a wedding,” Burack said. “It’s really fun to hear authors talking to authors about their process.”
That approach produced one of her favorites, “Writing Through Generations,” which she’ll moderate. It pairs humorist Rebecca Rule and her daughter, middle-grade author Adi Rule, with Warner’s award-winning David Elliott and his son Eli, co-authors of the spooky middle-grade novel Bone Bag.
“How the heck does a father and son write a book together?” Burack said. “I can’t wait to ask.”
She’s also excited for “Bold Hearts, Brave Voices,” a panel featuring authors of books about young protagonists who push past their comfort zones. They include Kate Schoedinger, whose debut Death By Molasses is about a boy who survived Boston’s 1919 molasses flood and helped pave a path toward the creation of OSHA.
“Redemption at Last” is moderated by Jennifer Gordon, with Andrew Krivak, Diane Les Becquets and Brinda Charry, a Keene author and festival board member whose 2025 novel The East Indian won several awards. Charry’s latest, Hocus Pocus, is set in early Boston’s world of stage entertainment. Publishers Weekly called it “a marvel.”
Three years in, the festival relies on about 100 volunteers and a working board, and its strategic plan calls for hiring a full-time executive director. A Sunday of writing workshops is under discussion.
“We want it to be a beloved New Hampshire event that goes on for generations,” Burack said.
For first-timers, Burack’s advice is to wander and discover. Saturday non-keynote events are free. There are poetry readings and plenty of panels, each one ending with a signing, as well as a morning costume parade commencing at Constantly Pizza. Everyone is encouraged to come as a favorite book character.
“We’re all about bringing the community together to talk about stories,” she said. “That’s the joy of a book festival.”
New Hampshire Book Festival When: Friday, Oct. 2, and Saturday, Oct. 3 Where: Capitol Center for the Arts, 44 S. Main St., Concord Keynote tickets: Jodi Picoult, Friday, Oct. 2, 7 p.m., includes a copy of Hollow Bones, $59; Jeff Kinney, Saturday, Oct. 3, 6:30 p.m., $25, includes a copy of Spooky Stories 2 (Kinney’s Friday morning keynote is sold out). More: nhbookfestival.org
Pepe Mar makes his New England debut at the Currier
When Pepe Mar toured the Currier Museum of Art’s galleries last summer, he was looking out for a spark. He found it inside a piece with two tiny cabinet-like doors from the museum’s collection, the 33rd work from Dream Houses, Louise Nevelson’s series of roughly 37 human-sized wooden sculptures.
“I was like, oh my God, this is what I want the exhibition to be,” Mar said in a recent Zoom interview. “The idea of this … container with windows, some sort of vault — it had so many different things that inspired me.”
The result is what the Currier’s website describes as “a phantasmagorical world.” “Pepe Mar: Dream House” opens on Thursday, Oct. 1, with an exclusive evening reception. It’s the first New England presentation for the Mexico-born, Miami-based artist, whose assemblage work blends thrift-store finds, queer culture, science fiction and textiles.
Various Currier collection pieces will share the galleries in aesthetic conversation with Mar’s work, like a gilded rococo Ormolu clock, a Piranesi table and iridescent Tiffany glass. There will also be furniture upholstered in Mar-designed fabric. Breaking with usual protocol, guests can plop down upon these works of art.
The exhibition runs through February, and Mar imagines it as a refuge — hence the invitation to sit on his beautiful chairs.
“You have this very strong winter,” he explained. “I thought this could be somewhere people can come and congregate, hang out, visit multiple times and discover different things.”
Currier curator Anastasia Kinigopoulo had the same idea. “I knew that this was going to be a winter show, a little oasis in a very snowy time of the year,” she said during the same Zoom discussion, adding, “Who doesn’t like to sit in a chair in a museum? It’s like a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
With a background in American decorative arts, Kinigopoulo welcomed the chance to combine a modern aesthetic with centuries-old objects, pointing to the Ormolu clock as a prime example.
“There’s angels, flourishes and gold,” she said. “Everything looks like it’s moving, even though it’s not.”
A Hans Hofmann painting with pooled blocks of color provided Mar with a spark for an exhibition in Kansas City, an influence reflected in the Currier show’s striking carpet.
“It’s like you pour all this orange into the space, so [it] becomes almost like a painting,” he said. “I’m about mixing … everything is an inspiration for me.”
The collection objects also trace Mar’s own evolution. Tired of working only on paper, he began buying vases and glassware in thrift stores, drawn to shapes he spent years cutting out of decorative-arts books. For “Dream House,” he got what he called “the ultimate scavenger hunt” with a trip into the Currier’s vault in search of those same objects.
A box collage that Mar spent two years making nods to Joseph Cornell, but louder.
“With Joseph Cornell, you look into a window,” he said. “This collage is coming at you.” The plexiglass boxes that encase much of his work began as protection for fragile paper collages. Now he color-matches each box to its artwork, making it part of the design.
The biggest news is a debut. Mindful of New Hampshire’s textile history, Mar turned to the Taller Mexicano de Gobelinos in Guadalajara, which he had visited years ago. With weavers there, he translated a 2006 work from the start of his collage practice into a style that’s provisioned French monarchy for hundreds of years.
The tapestry reached his Miami studio just days before the interview. No one else has seen it, and Kinigopoulo is delighted to unveil it at the Currier. She explained that the Gobelinos process produces hues impossible any other way, blending several colors into each weft thread. “It’s like painting with fiber,” she said.
The exhibition is bilingual, and it also launches a catalog featuring essays by Kinigopoulo and Italy-based decorative arts scholar Christian Larsen. The Currier typically does this only for big shows, to help them carry on.
“Exhibitions end,” Kinigopoulo said. “Books keep that memory and that scholarship alive.”
Mar hopes newcomers leave the way young visitors did after his 15-year survey in 2023 at the Tampa Museum of Art. Many who attended that exhibition messaged him afterward. “It’s about feeling something,” he said. “I want you to enjoy that moment … feel embellished by all of it. That’s the goal.”
“Pepe Mar: Dream House” Reception Where: Currier Museum of Art, 150 Ash St., Manchester When: Thursday, Oct. 1, 6 p.m. Tickets: $25, $10 for members, currier.org Opens to the public Oct. 2, continuing Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Feb. 21, 2027.
