Matt Wilhelm was elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives in 2018, and became House Democratic Leader after last year’s midterms. Wilhelm’s first campaign, however, was centered on culture. In 2015 he led what turned out to be an unsuccessful effort to reopen Manchester’s Rex Theatre as Old Sol Music Hall.
He doesn’t regret failing; it launched him in politics. “It got my vision out there; I was able to connect with members of the community,” he said recently. “They understood what my values were and were willing to stick with me.” The Palace Theatre would ultimately buy the venue, and the renovated Rex held its first show in October 2019.
Wilhelm is happily throwing a birthday party at the Rex on May 18. It’s a fundraiser for Strong Circle PAC, which supports House Democrats in their efforts to retake the State House next year. Chadwick Stokes, of the activist bands Dispatch and State Radio, will perform a solo set at the soiree.
Wilhelm and Stokes are friends and colleagues. They met at UNH on Election Day in 2001, after Dispatch featured at a show there. A year later, the group began its first U.S. tour. Wilhelm, then a sophomore at Plymouth State, joined as an intern.
“Their career had kind of skyrocketed over the course of that last year,” Wilhelm said. “This was a real DIY band, a grassroots, word-of-mouth, Napster-driven, independent success story.” He did marketing, street team work, and some videography for Under the Radar, a DVD released in 2002.
This marked the beginning of a decade-and-a-half career in the music industry. Along with managing tours, lighting and concert merch, he co-directed Calling All Crows, a nonprofit organization named after a State Radio song. This felt a lot like community organizing to Wilhelm, providing a foundation for leading his party in the House.
“I’m a cultivator of that community … saying, here are our priorities, here’s how we rally around them, and here’s how we make progress on the issues that we care about,” he said. “In a lot of ways, it set me up for Old Sol, then set me up to launch a campaign.”
Wilhelm grew up listening to his parents’ Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young records and continues to believe in music’s power to affect change. “There’s a lot of folks that will say that was done in the ’60s, that music and activism went away,” he said, “but it’s pretty clear it didn’t.”
Stokes is proof of this sentiment; his music and politics are intertwined. That’s why he’s doing the benefit.
“As a musician, I want to use the platform I have most effectively to help people like Matt do the real nuts and bolts of policy change and legislation,” he wrote in an email. “My music is political like Matt’s politics are musical.”
The Rex set will likely range across Stokes’ career.
“I’ll probably be playing a lot of solo stuff, like ‘Chaska’ and ‘Pine Needle Tea’ and then a smattering of State Radio and Dispatch, and hopefully some new ones,” he wrote. He also expects to unveil one or two songs from a rock opera he’s working on, tentatively titled American Refugee.
Wilhelm is pleased to be mounting a show at the venue he once hoped to turn into an arts hub. “It’s exciting, and in so many ways a long time coming, having Chad here in Manchester at the Rex,” he said. “The campaign wasn’t initially successful, but a bunch of different partners came together, including the mayor and the Palace, and made it a reality. Now I’m working on political campaigns, and so it’s kind of fun to bring it all together.”
There will be birthday cupcakes and a cash bar at Wilhelm’s birthday bash, and benefactor packages are available. Wilhelm approaches the evening buoyed by the energy he saw from Gen Z and millennial voters last November.
“I’m more hopeful knowing that there are young people coming of age right now who aren’t willing to accept the status quo and will be pushing for progress in all sorts of different ways,” he said. “I think this next generation isn’t going to let us … rest on our laurels.”
Matt Wilhelm’s 41st Birthday with Chadwick Stokes When: Thursday, May 18, 7 p.m. Where: The Rex Theatre, 23 Amherst St., Manchester Tickets: $50 and up at bit.ly/518concert
Jennifer Lopez is, as the internet says, mother in The Mother, a line I’ll bet at least 60 percent of movie reviewers use when discussing this movie.
Partly because it’s true, partly because it’s right there and partly because Lopez’s character in this violent — but, aw, sweet! — Netflix movie is, as far as I can tell, just called Mother or maybe, as IMDb calls her, The Mother.
We first meet her when she is attempting to inform on some bad dudes to the FBI, who are doing a remarkably incompetent job of getting information out of this totally willing witness. Only Agent Cruise (Omari Hardwick) seems to be listening at all when she assures them that Adrian (Joseph Fiennes), bad dude No. 1, knows where they are and is on his way to kill him. No, he’s not, we’re perfectly safe, bluster bluster, says one of the other agents, right before he’s shot in the head.
But Lopez isn’t the sort of informant who just sits back and lets herself be assassinated. Despite being real pregnant, she saves Cruise when he is shot using, like, superglue and she manufactures an explosive from household products that seems to take out Adrian when he finally corners her. He stabs her in the belly before she blows him up but she makes it to the hospital and delivers a healthy baby girl.
Though Lopez is eager to hold her infant daughter, Edie Falco playing a no-nonsense FBI higher-up is all “not so fast, lady.” Because Adrian’s body was not recovered from the burning bathroom where Lopez left him and because Hector (Gael Garcia Bernal), bad dude No. 2, is also after her, the only way Lopez can keep her daughter safe is to give her up. Lopez gets the recovering Cruise to promise that he’ll make sure her daughter is adopted by good people, send her a photo of her daughter every year on her birthday and let Lopez know if her daughter is ever in trouble.
A dozen years later, Lopez’s character has made a Spartan life for herself on the outskirts of a small Alaskan town where the general store shop owner is a war buddy and where she spends her days hunting caribou for food and doing other survivalist off-the-grid activities. Then she gets a non-birthday bit of communication from Cruise, leading her to head to Ohio where her now 12-year-old daughter Zoe (Lucy Paez) lives with her adoptive mom (Yvonne Senat Jones), who gets to be an anguished protective mother as well, and a dad (Michael Karl Richards) whose face is I think always out of focus? Whatever, dads are not the point of The Mother, where either Hector or Adrian might be Zoe’s father but Lopez doesn’t want either anywhere near Zoe.
It seems the bad dudes have, however, found evidence of Zoe’s existence and whereabouts, which is why Cruise reached out. Quickly, Lopez kicks into protector mode, doing everything she can to fight the men who come to kidnap Zoe and to retrieve her when a surviving henchman manages to whisk Zoe away.
Eventually, Lopez takes the lead in hiding Zoe, even teaching her a little self-defense. What passes for humor and personality in this mostly laughs-free, character-minimalist movie comes as Zoe tweens about eating “Bambi’s mom” and hating Lopez —all with a very “gah [eyeroll], Mom” energy.
To lean further on dated slang for description, The Mother lands somewhere on the scale between “meh” and “cromulent.” This sure is a movie that exists — one might say of The Mother. It doesn’t have the Jennifer Lopez legit badassness of Out of Sight or the cheesy hysterics of Enough but it is, you know, a thing your eyes can watch. It’s fine, is I guess what I’m saying. It lacks the energy that would make it “heck yeah!” action fun but it has a whole subplot involving a Lopez and a mother wolf and the silly self-seriousness of that isn’t terrible. B-
Rated R for violence, some language and brief drug use, according to the MPA at filmratings.com. Directed by Niki Caro with a screenplay by Misha Green and Andrea Berloff and Peter Craig, The Mother is an hour and 55 minutes long and available on Netflix.
Last year’s inaugural New England Coffee Festival brought more than 5,000 attendees to downtown Laconia over two days to enjoy workshops, vendors, samples and even a competitive “latte art throwdown.” Now the two-day celebration of specialty coffee culture is back for a second year with new features — the event returns to the city with a kickoff panel discussion and outdoor block party on Friday, May 19, followed by a full day’s worth of coffee-related activities scheduled for Saturday, May 20.
“Last year was awesome. It definitely exceeded our expectations,” said festival organizer Karen Bassett, who also co-owns Wayfarer Coffee Roasters in Laconia. “Everyone kept saying that it didn’t feel like a first-year event, and we felt like that was one of the highest compliments we could have received about Year 1, especially where we were just kind of learning the ropes and figuring this out. … This year, we’ve consolidated it to [having] just the Colonial Theatre as the coffee education center, and then the Belknap Mill for basically like the full festival experience over there.”
Admission options include either one-day or two-day passes. The festivities kick off with a panel discussion inside the Colonial Theatre on Friday at 6 p.m., moderated by Alex Stoyle of Revelstoke Coffee in Concord and featuring five area coffee professionals.
“The discussion is called ‘How Did You Get Here?’ and it’s just going to be a super approachable conversation for anyone,” Bassett said. “I think it’s super fun to hear about different career paths in the coffee industry that you may not realize, and just to hear from a lot of these people that maybe started out as baristas and then maybe got a management position in that cafe, or maybe they got interested in the roasting side.”
That will be followed by an outdoor block party on nearby Canal Street, where there will be samples provided by six local breweries in addition to live music and a wood-fired pizza truck.
“Last year we had a welcome mixer at one restaurant and it was really jam packed,” Bassett said, “so this year, we wanted to expand that opportunity to more people to kind of add to that community feel of the event.”
Coffee Festival happenings on Saturday will then include a full schedule of panel discussions, Q&A sessions and workshops, led by local industry professionals and covering a wide variety of coffee-related topics. There will be a total of five workshop locations, all in and around the Colonial Theatre, operating in what Bassett called a “choose your own adventure” format.
“We’re hosting a lot more coffee cuppings, which are kind of like a professional coffee tasting experience, and you’ll be walked through what that all looks like,” she said.
Other workshop topics will include loose leaf teas, elevating your home coffee brewing experience, infusing coffee and spirits and the importance of water filtration. Each will welcome passholders on a first-come, first-served basis.
The last big change for this year’s festival, Bassett said, involves the “latte art throwdown” — that will take place at 3 p.m. on Saturday on the main stage of the Colonial Theatre, and it’s open to the public, although passholders will have access to front-row VIP seating.
A total of 32 New England area baristas will face off in a bracketed challenge testing their latte art skills, with all kinds of prizes awarded to finalists.
“Each round will be different. There may either be a design that they need to pour, or it could be a freestyle round,” Bassett said. “You should be seeing a lot of different types of designs, and there will be a panel of judges who get to pick their favorite. It’s going to be projected up on a screen too so everybody can see. … It was a lot of fun last year. It’s a friendly and fun competition, and it’s pretty fascinating to see what these baristas can do.”
Coffee Festival tickets can be purchased online, or you can get them inside the Colonial Theatre box office on the day of the event. A vendor expo will take place on the third floor of the Belknap Mill on Saturday, and several food trucks will be set up in its parking lot.
“Now that we have one [event] under our belt and are just about ready to have two, the concept behind the coffee and community hybrid-style event is one we don’t have to explain as much anymore,” Bassett said. “It gives people a very different coffee event than a typical industry expo where you go and get inundated with products and services. … It’s being able to both interact with coffee professionals and be able to share that passion with the people who are drinking your product.”
New England Coffee Festival When: Friday, May 19, and Saturday, May 20 Where: Various locations across downtown Laconia, including the Colonial Theatre (617 Main St.) and the Belknap Mill (25 Beacon St. East), as well as on Canal Street, which will be closed to vehicular traffic between Main and Beacon streets during both days. Cost: $50 for a one-day pass or $75 for a two-day pass; tickets can be purchased online or inside the box office of the Colonial Theatre the days of the event. Visit: newenglandcoffeefestival.com
Featured photo: Scene from last year’s New England Coffee Festival. Photos by Raya Al-Hashmi, on Instagram @rayaonassignment.
Artists inspired by a once-essential part of the feminine wardrobe
Twiggs Gallery is celebrating women through the art show “Head’s Up: The Many Hats Women Wear.” The show, which features all artists from the Women’s Caucus for Art’s New Hampshire Chapter, prompted artists to use hats as inspiration, whether through making the hats, using hat imagery, or recycling hats to be used as part of the media for the artwork.
“There’s really only two hats you could actually wear,” Laura Morrison, the gallery director at Twiggs, said. “The rest are really sculptures.”
There are approximately 30 different hat-inspired pieces on display at the gallery. The goal with the show was to display many of the ways women exist in both modern and older societies. The artwork is on display until May 27, and most of the artwork is for sale.
There weren’t any strict rules to interpreting the theme, Morrison said. Some of the artwork on display takes inspiration from iconic women and their hats, like Carmen Miranda, who famously danced with a pile of fruit on her head.
Morrison said that the majority of the pieces are sculptures, with a handful of hanging pieces that were photography or mixed media. The artwork includes paintings and photos, sculptures using flowers and nature, and one piece that incorporates sound.
“Negative Hat with a Positive Attitude” by Donna Catanzaro. Courtesy photo.
That piece, titled “Negative Hat with a Positive Attitude,” by Donna Catanzaro, turns photo negatives from Catanzaro’s youth into the structure of a bell-shaped hat that is suspended so viewers can stand inside. The audio aspect comes from a short monologue Catanzaro recorded, explaining how she became empowered by the old reels of negatives and the girl she once was.
“We asked the artists to broadly interpret the theme,” Morrison said. “Some of [the art] is nature, like Mother Nature, or about a woman’s work, or self-image, agency and power. We try to offer themes that can be broadly interpreted. It’s giving visual representation of thoughts and ideas that [the artists] have.”
This is the third installment from the partnership Twiggs has with WCA/NH that Morrison has inspired. The first was “Busting Out: Powerful Women” also known as “The Bra Show,” and the second was “Kick-Start” or “The Shoe Show.” Morrison said she isn’t sure what other piece of uniquely feminine clothing could be used to inspire art, but hopes to figure one out.
Morrison wants people to experience the show as a serious celebration of women but also to see it as something amusing.
“Whoever comes in will come out with something to think about, with what women are thinking about, and what challenge they have,” Morrison said. “Also, it’s just fun, too. I’ve heard people laugh a few times while they’re in there because they enjoy the show so much.”
Head’s Up: The Many Hats Women Wear Where: Twiggs Gallery, 254 King St., Boscawen When: During gallery hours, Thursday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sunday noon to 4 p.m. Visit: twiggsgallery.org
Featured photo: “Forest Guardess Headgear” by Kathleen Lovett. Courtesy photo.
New Hampshire’s teams lace up for roller derby season
Game time at JFK Coliseum means something different in the spring and summertime than in the winter months. Spectators still flock to the stadium seats, but they also set up lawn chairs down on the concrete of the melted ice rink.
Officials in referee jerseys with names like “Tugboat,” “Doomsday Llama” and “She-Rantula” press neon pink tape over ropes that make up the flat track. Dozens of women roller skate around in black and pink or white and blue team tank tops. Some have on yoga pants, some have on bright colored skirts, all wear heavy-duty helmets and pads.
Music blasts through loudspeakers as fans, friends and family hold up homemade signs and scream their favorite player’s name.
With the first whistle on April 29, the roller derby season has officially started for New Hampshire Roller Derby’s travel teams.
NHRD was the first flat track roller derby organization in the Granite State. Its first season was 15 years ago. The sport has gained popularity throughout the country and locally. New Hampshire has four leagues, with varying numbers of teams. NHRD has two travel teams, three home teams and one recreational team.
Jena McClary, derby name Pixie Bruiser, has been a part of NHRD since 2008. She skates for the All Stars, the highest-ranked travel team, and for the home team Nightmares on Elm Street.
Kelsea “Terror Nova” Thom checks how far back her competition is after she breaks away and wins lead jammer. Photo by Katelyn Sahagian.
“It’s taken over my whole life,” McClary said. In addition to running the team’s public relations, she met her husband through the sport, and now he coaches the All Stars, and their kids also have played and worked as officiants as well.
McClary said it’s the best way to exercise, in her opinion, and also a great way to relieve stress.
“For me, it’s an outlet,” McClary said. “It’s an outlet I enjoy and the main thing that keeps me going is the challenge of it.”
Between the first whistle and the last introduction by the emcee, the skaters on New Hampshire Roller Derby’s A and B travel teams take a brief second to set up for the first jam of the night.
McClary and three other skaters stand in formation. She and two other blockers make a triangle, with the pivot standing close by. A few feet away, the first jammer of the night, Terror Nova, crouches down behind her line, waiting for the whistle.
When it sounds, it’s a race between Nova and Maine Roller Derby’s jammer to see who will control the match. Despite pushing and bobbing and weaving, the MRD jammer breaks out of the pack first. While Nova lost lead jammer this time, the friendly bout was only just beginning.
Roller derby is a sport that takes time, and someone who plays explaining it, to understand. It can be complex and confusing, especially if you’re learning in the middle of a game, where the seven officiants are keeping track of points and penalties, coaches and teammates are shouting suggestions, fans are cheering and skates are squealing on concrete while bodies are slamming into each other.
That being said, once the rules are laid out, it becomes easy to get wrapped up in the energy.
“It’s a combination of rugby and NASCAR,” said Raven Makenzie “Smackenzie Phillips” Ladao. “Many people refer to it as like the non-sporty sport. If you don’t fit in in other sports, this is your sport.”
Ladao said the easiest way to learn the game is to watch it. She has played all three of the positions on a roller derby team: jammer, pivot and blocker. She’s favoring the blocker position the most these days.
Ladao is a long-time veteran of roller derby. She’s played in several different states, as well as in Japan, which she represented in the 2018 World Championship in Manchester, England. Now she coaches NHRD’s junior league, which her kids either play in or officiate for.
NHRD will have a sign that says, “Ask me about roller derby” with an arrow pointed down to the person holding it. Ladao was the sign-bearer at the bout against Maine.
“Many people ask, ‘Where’s the ball?’ There is no ball in the sport,” Ladao said. She pointed out the two players with helmet covers on. “The person with the star on is essentially the ball, because that’s the only person on the track who can score the points.”
She explained that they are called jammers, and they have to start behind all the other players. Once the jammers make it past everyone on the track, one will be named the lead jammer and she’ll have the power to end the match early.
Jammers have to make it through the blockers. The blockers have to stay within 10 feet of each other, and try to keep the other team’s jammer from passing. It sounds easy enough, until you learn that they can’t use their forearms to block or hold onto the opposite team, as well as a plethora of other body parts they can’t make contact with.
The only form of punishment is a penalty, basically a time-out where the player has to sit in the penalty box for 30 seconds. The box has three chairs, one for a jammer, two for everyone else. There are plenty of different penalties that derby players can commit. Even coaches can be subject to penalties, and the team’s captain would have to sit it for the coach if that was the case.
“So the most basic penalty is a track cut,” Ladao explained. “That’s where someone hits you out of the track and you have to come in behind them. They can run back … but if you’re not paying attention and you jump back on the track before them that’s going-out-of-bounds penalty. So like going out of bounds, you have to come back in behind the person who bumped you out.”
Penalties are usually sat for 30 seconds; 20 of them the player has to be seated, the last 10 they can stand up and get ready to rejoin the game. Ladao said she’s never seen it happen before, but an entire team could be penalized at the same time, between two standing members and three seated ones.
Penalties are designed to keep players safe. The Women’s Flat Track Derby Association, the governing body for women’s roller derby around the world, is constantly updating its rules to make sure that players are safe.
Having clear rules makes it possible for NHRD to have players of all ages, shapes and sizes, said Emily “Blitzy Borden” Chebook, who was the captain at the bout and skates for All Stars as well as the home team Granite Skate Troopers.
“I think there’s a place for almost anybody, whether it’s on the track or not,” Chebook said. “With skating, you can be tall and wide, you can be short and lanky. It doesn’t really matter.”
“Slick Tracy” (Brittany Duffy) is cheered on by her teammates after winning Most Valuable Blocker for NHRD against Maine. Photo by Todd Grzywacz.
Chebook has a unique history with NHRD. She saw her first derby bout at NHRD when she was in elementary school and immediately fell in love. She had wanted to play but she said there were no youth leagues back then.
She did a training session with NHRD before realizing she couldn’t commit the time to the sport. When she and her husband moved to the Midwest, she found a community because of roller derby.
“Some of the people I’ve met through derby are the sweetest teddy bears,” Chebook said.
Rachel “Jagged Little Kill” Smith, a new member of NHRD, who plays for the B travel team, The Cherry Bombs, and Nightmare on Elm Street, said that a lot of people have misconceptions about the people who play roller derby.
“I think when you roll derby, you kind of have an idea of the kind of person that plays,” Smith said. “You have a stereotype of, ‘Oh, you play derby, you must have piercings and face tattoos or live an “alternative lifestyle.”’ And we do have those people, but we have moms and nurses and accountants and grandparents.”
Smith said that the derby of the 1970s is not the derby of today, that it’s not just a bunch of women trying to hurt each other. Smith actually joined NHRD only five months ago after completing the training camp that started in September. She said that everyone on the team has been like having a second family.
“It is a little nerve-wracking to walk into this big group of people who are very close-knit,” Smith said. “We see each other two or three times a week in practice. A lot of people hang out socially outside of those times, and everybody is going to welcome you with open arms. It has been a completely incredible, welcoming community.”
Despite the players’ off-track personalities, their on-track personas were fiercely fighting to get ahead against MRD. Early in the bout, NHRD’s hard work paid off and they scored ahead in the leaderboard, and kept the pressure on for the rest of the bout. By the time the game had ended, they had won by close to 150 points.
After the game, the teams congratulated each other with high fives and cheers, as each group took a victory lap. It was as if they hadn’t spent the last hour tripping, pushing, shoving and body-checking each other.
Both teams amassed, standing and waiting for an announcer to say who won the most valuable jammer and blocker for each of the teams while the officiants counted up the final scores. Both sides cheered when the players were called forward, not caring about the rivalry they had just shared.
“People in derby are way nicer than we appear when we play,” Smith said. “We like to put on a good show for the audience. You know, be a little bit showboaty. But when it comes down to it … we’re normal people who just like to get together and sweat and push around our friends a little bit and then give each other high fives before we go home.”
Roller derby organizations and upcoming games Granite Skate Roller Derby Everett Arena, 15 Loudon Road, Concord, granitestaterollerderby.org When: June 10, July 15, times to be determined.
Monadnock Roller Derby Lee Clement Arena, 38 Grove St., Henniker, monadnockrollerderby.com When: Saturday, Aug. 12, time to be determined. Price: Online pre-orders are $10
New Hampshire Roller Derby JFK Coliseum, 303 Beech St., Manchester, nhrollerderby.com When: Saturdays, May 20, June 24, and Aug. 5, all at 4:30 p.m. Price: $12 adults, free for children 12 and younger, veterans and NHRD veterans How to join: Email the league at [email protected] for adult players. Youth skaters can sign up for the current session at nhjuniorrollerderby.com.
How to play
Rules come from the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association, wftda.com:
The game of Flat Track Roller Derby is played on a flat oval track. Games are divided into two 30-minute periods. Within each period there are play sessions called jams, which last up to two minutes. There are 30 seconds between jams.
During a jam, each team has up to five skaters on the track. Four of these skaters are called blockers (together, the blockers are called the pack) and one is called a jammer. The jammer wears a helmet cover with a star on it. One of the blockers wears a helmet cover with a stripe; they are called the pivot and can be an alternate for the jammer.
The two jammers start each jam behind the pack and score a point for every opposing blocker they lap, each lap. Before they can start scoring, they must get through the first pack and skate around the track before they can score points on opposing blockers.
Roller derby is a full-contact sport but skaters cannot use their heads, elbows, forearms, hands, knees, lower legs or feet to make contact with opponents. It is illegal to attack a player’s head, back, knee, lower leg or feet.
Play that is unsafe or illegal may result in a skater being penalized. Penalties are served by sitting in the penalty box for 30 seconds of jam time.
The team with the most points at the end of the game wins.
Derby lingo
All terms and definitions come from the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association, wftda.com:
Apex jump – when a jammer jumps out of bounds but lands back in bounds to break away from the pack.
Bank track – the traditional roller derby track from the 1970s. The track is sloped inward. Only a few are used in the United States.
Kelsea “Terror Nova” Thom quickly maneuvers around a MRD blocker. Photo by Todd Grzywacz.
Blocker – one of the three positions in a derby game. Their job is to block the other team’s jammer and help their own jammer accelerate through the jam.
Bout – the name for a roller derby game.
Falling small – the ability to keep arms and legs contained when falling to avoid further injuries.
Flat track – the more common style of derby track. This one is made by taping rope down on a hard surface, indoors or outdoors.
Jam – a round of the bout. Can last up to 2 minutes, but can also be called off by the lead jammer.
Jammer – the player who scores points for the team; they wear a star helmet cover.
Lead Jammer – the jammer to break through first; they have the ability to call off the round by tapping their hips four times.
Pack – blockers and pivot must form one by being within 10 feet of each other.
Pass/earned pass – how points are tallied. A jammer can score up to four points each time they lap the other team.
Pivot – a blocker that can receive the star helmet cover and become the new jammer if needed. They wear a striped helmet cover.
Power jam – only one team’s jammer is on the track.
Star pass – where the jammer passes the star helmet cover to the pivot. If the jammer was the lead jammer at the time, they forfeit that position and the full two-minute round is played.
Track – an oval-shaped loop that derby is played on.
Safety gear
This is the gear that NHRD requires each of its players use.
• “Quad” style roller skates (inline skates are not allowed) — There are places that specialize in selling roller derby equipment, like Bruised Boutique (522 Amherst St., Nashua). Wear the skates that fit best, because improperly fitting skates can hold a player back and increase risk of injury.
• Dual certified helmet — Because while there isn’t a helmet that can prevent concussions, good helmets can help minimize injury.
• Mouth guard — The brand SISU is one that is easy to breathe through and allows the wearer to communicate with teammates.
• Hard protective shell/insert elbow pads — They should have a snug, comfortable fit, because elbow pads often last longer than other protective gear.
• Hard protective shell/insert knee pads— Get ones that are cushioned for function over fashion, because skaters land most of their falls on their knees.
• Hard protective shell/insert wrist guards — They should provide good palm and stable wrist protection, because hand and wrist injuries are fairly common due to players’ catching themselves.
Featured photo: Nicole “Punky” Mavrogeorge Wehry makes plans to evade Maine Roller Derby’s blockers as she skates into the fray. Photo by Todd Grzywacz.
The New Hampshire Historical Highway Marker for Elizabeth Gurley Flynn installed in Concord by the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources has been removed after receiving opposition from New Hampshire Executive Councilors Joseph Kenney and David Wheeler, WMUR reported. The marker, which was located at the corner of Court and Montgomery streets in downtown Concord, recognized Flynn, who was, according to a press release from the Division, “a well-known labor, women’s rights and civil liberties activist.” Identifying Flynn as “The Rebel Girl,” the marker highlighted Flynn’s involvement in the labor movement and her imprisonment after joining the Communist Party. The executive councilors argued that the marker promoted “communist propaganda” because of Flynn’s political associations. The controversy prompted Gov. Chris Sununu to call for a review of the historical marker process. “All policies and guidelines were followed in removing this controversial marker,” a statement released by Gov. Sununu’s office reads. “Through their public statements, the City of Concord made clear they were not advocating to keep the marker up. In their communications with the state, it was learned that the marker was located on state property, not city property as previously believed, and therefore the marker was removed this morning.”
Recall recalled
A recall that was issued on May 5 for “Spice” Packaged Salad Greens grown by lēf Farms in Loudon has been canceled. According to a press release, the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services confirmed, after a two-day inspection of the farm’s facility and products, that the concerns regarding a potential contamination of Escherichia coli O157 bacteria in a specific lot of the “Spice” green were the result of a laboratory error, and that the products are safe for consumption. “I wish to apologize to lēf Farms, their customers and the public for this unfortunate event,” Division of Public Health Services Director Tricia Tilley said in the release. “lēf Farms’ quick and decisive actions put the health of their customers first. Their products are safe for consumers. We appreciate that lēf Farms has been a willing partner in this process. While this situation is unprecedented, our dedicated staff will embrace all corrective actions to ensure it will not occur again.”
Lock in
Ninety-six New Hampshire law enforcement agencies are participating in the “Join the NH Clique” campaign now through June 4 as part of a nationwide effort to enforce seat belt usage for drivers and passengers. According to a press release, New Hampshire law requires that individuals under the age of 18 be secured with a seat belt or child safety seat, and drivers are held responsible for ensuring proper seat belt usage for minors in their vehicle. Data released by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has revealed that seat belt usage in New Hampshire currently ranks the lowest among all states. From 2020 to 2022, approximately half of all victims in fatal vehicle crashes on New Hampshire roads were not wearing seat belts and were ejected from their vehicles. In 2022, 55 fatalities in vehicle crashes on New Hampshire roads involved individuals not wearing seat belts. In 2021, 51 unbelted individuals lost their lives, while 2020 saw 41 fatalities of unbelted individuals. “We encourage drivers and their passengers to buckle up every trip, every time — no matter what,” Capt. Chris Vetter, Commander of Highway Safety in New Hampshire, said in the release. “Unfortunately, the decision not to do so continues to have deadly consequences throughout our state. Through this campaign, we hope to ultimately save lives.”
Post grad plans
The New Hampshire Department of Education has partnered with the College Guidance Network (CGN) to offer support services to help students, families and school counselors navigate the often complex path to post-secondary education opportunities. According to a press release, the initiative empowers school counselors to provide better support to their college-bound students, assisting them in confidently navigating the college admissions process and making responsible decisions. Students and educators at high schools across the state will have unlimited access to CGN School, an online platform available to families in all participating New Hampshire public and non-public schools, as well as home education families. “New Hampshire is an excellent state to build a statewide model for enabling families to better manage this process,” Jon Carson, founder of CGN, said in the release. “Our mix of on-demand video featuring acclaimed college admissions and career exploration experts, a wide range of content toolkits, live programming and our flagship feature, Roadmap to College, will give New Hampshire schools an important new tool to support counselors, students and their parents.”
New board members
The Manchester Historic Association, which operates the Millyard Museum and Research Center and offers public and school programs, lectures and tours aimed at preserving and sharing the history of Manchester, welcomes four new board members, according to a press release: Ami D’Amelio, CEO & President of Just Flow Events & Marketing, has over 25 years of sales and marketing experience; Michael Duffy is a longtime member and volunteer of MHA and currently serves as director and secretary with the NH Preservation Alliance; Patricia Meyers has served on multiple nonprofit boards, including the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance, and has received recognition for her contributions to historic preservation; and Peter Richard, General Manager of XMA Corporation, has a business administration background and involvement in various organizations such as the Manchester Area Human Resources Association and NH Tech Alliance.
The Aviation Museum of New Hampshire in Londonderry (27 Navigator Road) will host an open house on Monday, May 22, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. for adult community members who are interested in volunteering as mentors for the museum’s high school aircraft-building program. According to a press release, volunteers collaborate with high school students on site at Manchester School of Technology and Alvirne High School in Hudson to assemble a two-seat RV-12iS light sport aircraft. If you plan to attend the open house, call 669-4877 and leave a message with your name, or send an email to [email protected]. Visit aviationmuseumofnh.org.
St. Joseph Hospital in Nashua has won this year’s Nashua Gate City Light award. According to a press release, the award, presented by Mayor Donchess and the City of Nashua’s Mayor’s Volunteer Recognition Committee, recognizes an organization and its volunteers for “giving their time in the spirit of community, caring, and making significant contributions to the people of Nashua.”
The New Hampshire Department of Transportation will hold a public meeting to share information regarding proposed improvements to the crossing of Main Street over Beaver Brook in Pelham. The meeting will be held Wednesday, May 31, at 6:30 p.m. at Sherburne Hall in Pelham (6 Village Green). According to a press release, the project aims to address flooding and to correct structural deficiencies to remove the two bridges from the NHDOT Red List. Call 271-3921 or visit nh.gov/dot/projects to learn more.
