Category: Art & Theater

Conversations with Concord Authors returns

By Mya Blanchard

[email protected]

Back by popular demand is Conversations with Concord Authors, produced by local authors Margaret Porter and Paul Brogan and moderated by Concord-based journalist and longtime NHPR radio host Laura Knoy. The event will return for a second year to the Bank of NH Stage on Wednesday, April 5, at 7:30 p.m.

“[Brogan] had this idea … sometime over a year ago, I think, to bring together Concord-area authors on a stage … and have Laura … interview them about not just their books but the writing process and … being part of the creative community here,” Porter said of how the event first came to be last April. “We immediately knew … that this was something that we wanted to carry on and have it perhaps be an annual event.”

In addition to the interviews there will be a question-and-answer session as well as a book signing sponsored by Gibson’s Bookstore.

Porter participated in theater growing up and went on to study film in graduate school, writing continuously on the side.

“I’ve been a writer all my life, really,” she said. “Ever since I could hold a crayon I think … I was making up stories in my head and writing them down and illustrating them.”

Writing took the forefront for Porter after she moved across the country to Colorado, where she and her husband lived for 11 years while still seasonal New Hampshire residents on Lake Winnipesaukee. She moved here full-time about 30 years ago.

Having left behind many of her radio and film contacts, Porter found herself without any projects and decided to dedicate her time to writing. Her background in film serves as the basis for many of her stories.

“A lot of my inspiration comes from real-life activities I’ve had,” she said. “I tend to write novels about people … often in the performing arts, actresses or dancers, or [books] set in the golden age of Hollywood about people who were in the film business. … Film history is an area that’s important to me.”

Porter has 15 published historical novels set in the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries. Many of these stories are set in England, an area she is familiar with due to the time she spent there studying in her teenage and college years and for her husband’s job.

She has recently branched out into the contemporary fiction genre, drawing on her experiences on film sets in production and as an extra.

Porter, Brogan and Knoy have been planning this year’s event for months. In addition to Porter and Brogan, authors Kathleen D. Bailey, Sarah McCraw Crow and Dan Lawton will also be featured. While it is free to the public, reservation is required.

“New Hampshire is historically and currently a very supportive and nurturing place for creative people, and writers in particular,” Porter said. “It’s a very vibrant community and we like to celebrate that within this event.”

Conversations with Concord Authors
When: Wednesday, April 5, at 7:30 p.m.
Where: Bank of NH Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord
Cost: Free admission. Reservation is required.
Visit: ccanh.com

Featured photo: Local authors Paul Brogan and Margaret Porter at last year’s event. Courtesy photo.

ART NABE showcases women in music

By Mya Blanchard
[email protected]

ART NABE, a Manchester organization dedicated to amplifying the voices of underrepresented communities, is hosting the inaugural Celebrate HER, a gala-like event with live performances to show appreciation for female musicians based in New England.

The event will be held inside Southern New Hampshire University’s Robert Frost Hall on Saturday, April 1, and will also be livestreamed via Zoom — attendees will be able to mingle, enjoy light refreshments and hors d’oeuvres and, of course, listen to music.

“A person attending … would be supporting the music scene of New Hampshire, but more so, local artists,” event director and local artist MHB, who also goes by just M, said. “They would be able to experience live music from so many different genres [such as] afrobeat, hip-hop, rap [and] R&B.”

The concept of ART NABE, M said, was born in the fall of 2021. Raised in the Granite State, M returned home from school in Philadelphia to work in the art industry and soon realized that there wasn’t a place for artists to come together, nor a space to display their work.

“Our team really just thought it would be a good idea to expand on this idea of creating a space for all these artists to display their talents and their small businesses,” M said. “Our mission is really to highlight … underrepresented groups … that are either creative or entrepreneurs in the entertainment arts and culture space.”

ART NABE highlights these groups by hosting pop-up events related to art, music and food, like the local arts market they hosted last summer. This event included live music, in addition to vendors who were selling their products and artists displaying their work.

While discussing what to do for their next event, they ultimately decided they wanted to center it around women in music.

Sydney Choate, who is also frequently referred to by her stage name, Sydney the Singer, is among the event’s featured artists. Originally from Richmond, Maine, Choate grew up in a musical family with a mother who sings, a stepfather who plays the drums and the guitar, and a grandfather who is a songwriter as well as a guitarist.

“I was raised on really, really soulful voices and I think that definitely molded who I am as a musician,” said Choate, who credits artists like Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, Beyoncé, Toni Braxton and JoJo as some of her biggest influences.

Growing up listening to these artists, Choate knew from a young age that she wanted to be a singer.

“You’ll see my journals [when I was] like 5 years old talking about how I wanted to be a musician and sing on stage, sing my own original music and have my name in lights, and I think it’s the only picture I ever had for myself since I was very little,” Choate said.

Choate, who was involved in ART NABE’s art market last summer, was eager to be a part of this year’s event.

“Why I want to do this show in particular is because advocating for women [and] empowering women is very much part of who I am … so I couldn’t think of an event that resonated with me more,” she said.

As is in line with ART NABE’s goal, Celebrate HER will continue to help the voices of these women in the community be heard.

“I hope that more of the artists get exposure in the local community so that they have future opportunities that aren’t just … in line with ART NABE,” M said. “We’re hoping that it will just open the doors for opportunities for everyone that’s involved in the event.”

Celebrate HER
When: Saturday, April 1, 7 to 10 p.m.
Where: Robert Frost Hall, at Southern New Hampshire University, 2500 N. River Road, Manchester
Cost: Tickets are $25 for the showcase, or $5 to attend virtually via Zoom.
Visit: bit.ly/celebrateher2023, or see “ART NABE” on Facebook

Featured photo: Sidney the Singer. Courtesy photo.

The New Hampshire Jewish Film Festival begins March 16

Eleven feature films, a five-film shorts package and a kids’ event make up the slate of screenings for this year’s New Hampshire Jewish Film Festival, which starts Thursday, March 16.

Screenings at locations across the state take place through Sunday, March 26; virtual screenings will run through Sunday, April 16.

“What I think is important is after the film there’s a conversation that happens at a film festival,” said Pat Kalik, one of the co-chairs of the festival. “People gather and are able to talk about what they just saw.”

The festival starts Thursday, March 16, with a screening of Out of Exile: The Photography of Fred Stein at 7 p.m. at the Rex Theatre in Manchester. The documentary, which showcases the photography of Fred Stein, who shot in 1930s Paris and eventually fled to New York City, will be followed by a post-film discussion with filmmaker Peter Stein, Fred Stein’s son.

The post-film panel is an addition to this year’s program, Kalik said. Three of the films — including Dedication (the filmed version of Roger Peltzman’s one-man play about his mother’s brother, a celebrated pianist, who was murdered at Auschwitz) and Israel Swings for Gold (a documentary about the 2021 Israeli Olympic baseball team) — will feature in-person post-film discussions with their directors. Israel Swings for Gold will screen Tuesday, March 21, at Southern New Hampshire University’s Webster Hall in Hooksett at 7 p.m. and feature a discussion with Seth Kramer. Dedication will screen at the festival’s wrap party on Sunday, March 26, at 3:30 p.m. at Red River Theatres in Concord and will feature a discussion with Petlzman.

A Zoom discussion with filmmaker Steve Pressman, whose film Levys of Monticello is available virtually, is slated for Wednesday, March 22, at 7 p.m.

Kalik and her co-chair Ross Fishbein said that 9 of the feature-length movies will be available virtually — either during the festival’s initial in-person run or in the weeks following (Out of Exile and Dedication will be in-person only). The shorts package is completely virtual. Six of the feature films are getting in-person screenings, along with a special event for kids that will feature a screening of an episode from the cartoon series Shaboom! (that event is scheduled to take place Sunday, March 19, at 2 p.m. at the Jewish Federation of New Hampshire in Manchester and include snacks and making a cardboard car; the program is free but registration is required).

“Offering that virtual component … has enabled us to continue to show films to people that may not be fully comfortable being in person yet, but also just reaching further within the state,” Fishbein said. “People that maybe don’t live within easy driving distance of one of the multiple locations where we’re showing a film, they can still enjoy the programming.”

The viewing and selection processes for the festival are started in the summer the year before it opens, Kalik said. This year, the selection team viewed approximately 60 movies before coming to a final decision.

The movies follow a multitude of themes and stories, Kalik said. She and Fishbein stressed that it was important to have movies that weren’t just about the Holocaust but also weren’t just romantic comedies. They wanted to show the diversity of Jewish and Israeli film.

“For me, it’s hard to pick out a favorite because each film has its own unique quality,” Kalik said. “You know, it’s hard to compare a documentary about a photographer to a film about the Israeli baseball team.”

New Hampshire Jewish Film Festival
When: First in-person screening is Thursday, March 16, at 7 p.m. at the Rex Theatre in Manchester; wrap party and final in-person screening are Sunday, March 26, at 3:30 p.m. at Red River Theatres in Concord. Virtual screenings will run through Sunday, April 16 — beginning March 16 or March 27, depending on the film.
Price: Individual tickets cost $12. Ticket packages are also available including for all in-person screening and all virtual screenings.

Schedule:
• Out of Exile: The Photography of Fred Stein screens Thursday, March 16, at 7 p.m. at Rex Theatre (23 Amherst St. Manchester, 668-5588, palacetheatre.org/rex-theatre).
• Farwell, Mr. Haffmann screens Sunday, March 19, at 2 p.m. at 3S Artspace (319 Vaughan St., Portsmouth, 766-3330, 3sarts.org) and The Showroom in Keene.
• PJ Goes to the Movies: Shaboom! event takes place Sunday, March 19, at 2 p.m. at Jewish Federation of New Hampshire (273 S. River Road, No. 5, Bedford, 627-7679, jewishnh.org).
• Israel Swings for Gold screens Tuesday, March 21, at 7 p.m. at Southern New Hampshire University (Webster Hall, Mara Auditorium, 2546 N. River Road, Hooksett, 645-9700, snhu.edu)
• Man in the Basement screens Thursday, March 23, at 7 p.m. at Red River Theatres (11 S. Main St., Concord, 224-4600, redrivertheatres.org)
• America screens Sunday, March 26, at 1 p.m. at Red River Theatres in Concord.
• Dedication screens Sunday, March 26, at 3:30 p.m. at Red River Theatres in Concord.
More info: nhjewishfilmfestival.com

Films

Descriptions according to nhjewishfilmfestival.com

Features

• Follow swimming coach Eli in America(2022) as he travels back to Israel after his father’s death and his relationship with his childhood friend’s fiancée, who is a florist.

• In Barren (2022) the young ultra-orthodox couple Feigi and Naftali live at home with Naftali’s parents. While Naftali is away, a visitor named Rabbi Eliyahu comes to stay in the household, promising to help Feigi with treatment for being barren. When Naftali returns, the couple must face a difficult crisis that leads to questions about faith and trust.

• Roger Peltzman turned his one-man play into the film Dedication (2022). The play and film follow Peltzman’s family’s escape from Berlin to Brussels in 1933, focusing on his uncle Norbert, a popular pianist in Belgium, who was killed in Auschwitz at 21 years old.

• Farewell, Mr. Haffmann (2022) follows the story of Joseph Haffmann, a jeweler in occupied Paris in 1941. After sending his family away, Haffmann seeks out the help of his employee after he fails to escape the city.

• In the documentary Israel Swings for Gold (2022), the Israeli Olympic baseball team makes its first appearance at the Olympics. Because there were no professional media devices available at the village, the teammates documented the experience themselves with videos and pictures.

• Join older couple Tova and Meir as they explore what life has to offer them, with the help of their eccentric neighbor Itzik, in the film Karaoke (2022).

• Learn more about the family that owned Thomas Jefferson’s famed estate, Monticello, for more than a century in this documentary. The Levys of Monticello (2022) tells the history of the Levy family, as well as how it intersects with the rise of antisemitism in American history.

• In The Man in the Basement (2022), a couple sell their unused cellar to a former history professor. In a dark turn, they find out that the professor is an antisemitic conspiracy theorist and has befriended their teen daughter.

• Actress Mariette Hartley explores the dating scene as an older woman in Hollywood in Our (Almost Completely True) Story (2022). When she finds herself smitten with comedian Jerry Sorka, and him with her, unexpected challenges arise, leaving Mariette wondering if she’s too old to find love.

• The documentary Out of Exile: The Photography of Fred Stein (2021), follows how a young photographer, fearing the Nazi party, traveled to France in the 1930s to document everything he saw. When an accident ended his life, Stein’s photography seemed to vanish with it, until his son, Peter, brought the pictures back into the art world.

• The documentary Reckonings (2022) follows the untold true story of the negotiations between Jewish and German leaders determining the reparations for the survivors of the Holocaust.

Short films

• A Kaddish for Selim (2022) follows a young British Jewish man who changes his name to fight in World War I.

• Give It Back (2019) follows Olivia, a girl new to Israeli society, and her blossoming friendship with an Ethiopian boy named Alem.

• In Nazi-occupied Albania, Ismail must choose between his nation’s honor code to protect visitors (in his case, two Jewish men) and the safety of his family in Ismail’s Dilemma (2020).

• In Pops (2021), sisters Elli and Roz must honor their father’s dying wish, even though it’s unusual.

• Space Torah (2020) documents the journey of Jewish-American astronaut Dr. Jeff Hoffman as he brings parts of his religion and culture into space.

Featured photo: Israel Swings for Gold. Courtesy photo.