Shawn Barker walked into auditions for the rock ’n’ roll origin musical Million Dollar Quartet sporting a rockabilly haircut with his eyes on the Elvis Presley role. The show’s director had a different idea, however, and his decision pointed Barker down a new path, and a multi-decade career starring in his tribute act, The Man In Black.
“There’s a million guys that audition for doing Elvis for this play, and we can pick any of them,” Barker, in a recent phone interview, recalled being told. “There’s nobody that we can pick that would do Johnny Cash except for you. You’re the one guy that we found that was like, this is the guy.”
Once that was settled, the musical’s producers encouraged Barker to take an immersive approach for his role.
“I went to where he was buried, to his house — anything I could do to associate myself with Cash,” he said. His efforts ultimately benefited The Man In Black. “It ended up getting so popular that I never took stage with the Million Dollar Quartet; I got too busy and I had to drop out of the Broadway production.”
Barker’s show begins in the Sun Records studio where Cash cut his first songs, and continues chronologically through the ups and downs of a career that found him at one point banned from the Grand Ole Opry for kicking out stage lights in an intoxicated rage, and welcomed back a few years later to host a weekly television show from the Ryman Auditorium stage.
The Johnny Cash Show, which ran for two seasons from 1969 to 1971, was an incubator for the crossover genre of music now called Americana, and Barker takes time to focus on it during his show.
“We talk about how groundbreaking it was,” he said. “He had people like Bob Dylan, Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles, Linda Ronstadt … it was a very eclectic group he brought to his show. And he was doing the folk festivals and stuff like that at the time when the whole hippie movement was going on. He was a pretty diverse cat, man.”
It concludes with the series of American Recordings albums that Rick Rubin began producing in 1994. Covers of songs like Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt” and “Rusty Cage” from Soundgarden helped bring Cash to a new, younger audience, driven by his music and stark, moving videos played on MTV and VH1.
“He’s one of the only stars that I can think of that had that far-reaching of a fan base,” Barker said, adding he sees evidence of this whenever he performs. “We get little kids at the show sometimes and then we’ll get the people that were there when he was at Sun Records. Eight to 80 years old is our crowd age;it’s pretty wild.”
Barker took a winding road to becoming a convincing doppelgänger for the country legend. Growing up in Missouri, he sang in the church choir and joined school band in fifth grade. When he started playing with friends in the basement, it was lots of rock music, from Skid Row and other popular groups.
After high school, he was in a working band called Nothing Yet, doing everything from early Stones to Rage Against the Machine — not exactly Pentecostal fare.
“Oh, yeah, it was a total departure,” he said. “Church was one of the things I grew up in as a kid, and probably went about as far from as you can, and then came back to as an adult.”
To hear Barker tell it, becoming Johnny Cash was bound to happen.
“My dad and his family are all from Arkansas like Cash, and grew up doing the same things,” he said. “Even as a kid, my dad worked on a cotton farm and pulled the big sacks. He’d talk about how his hands would be cut up from reaching in and popping the cotton off the plants.”
The Cash look was a gift from above, but the rest came naturally, and since launching the act in 2003, Barker’s come to see it as his destiny. Fans clearly love it. “The accent was something I already had in genetic makeup,” he said. “I didn’t really think it was going to be that long-lasting … but it turns out that this is probably what I’m going to do until I die.”
The Man In Black: A Tribute to Johnny Cash When: Sunday, Feb. 23, 7 p.m. Where: Nashua Center for the Arts, 201 Main St., Nashua Tickets: $29 and up at etix.com
A Black teen with a promising future is derailed when he’s sent to a Florida reform school in the 1960s in Nickel Boys, the Oscar Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay nominee based on the Colson Whitehead novel.
Elwood (Ethan Herisse) is 17 but already attending college and taking part in civil rights protests. While walking to school one day, he takes a ride from a man who is subsequently pulled over and charged with having stolen a car, which means Elwood is now in trouble for having stolen a car even though he didn’t know the man at all. He’s sent to reform school Nickel Academy, where he’s told working hard will earn early release. This turns out to be extremely untrue; Nickel is a segregated hellscape where the Black kids, some of whom look like they’re barely old enough to be out of preschool, are beaten, tortured and assaulted and used as unpaid labor. Meanwhile, the white kids do some labor but they also play football and are called “mister.” Elwood hangs on to the idea that his loving grandmother, Harriet (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor), will work with a lawyer to get an appeal and get him out of there. In the meantime he tries, with varying results, to stay clear of some of the more bullying kids and the more sadistic adults. He has help with this when he befriends Turner (Brandon Wilson), a kid with more time at Nickel and nobody waiting for him on the outside. Turner seems to both admire and be deeply wary of Elwood’s belief that justice for them, for the wrongs they suffer, is possible. We also jump to the future, decades later in New York City, and see the burden that these boys, now men, carry with them from what happened to them at Nickel.
Nickel Boys jumps around a bit in time, going back and forth between the 1960s and the adult futures of the characters. It also starts with a presentation of Elwood’s life that feels very much like memories — partly remembered moments, faces, sounds. Scenes are often shot from his point of view or, later, from Turner’s point of view. Which means sometimes we’re feeling what’s happening from the point of view of a terrified, somewhat naive Elwood and sometimes we’re seeing him react. And we’re sometimes looking directly at the horrors of Nickel and sometimes just seeing parts of it — a glimpse of a boy who has been beaten, for example. This approach, along with historical photos and news clips of normal life, help to build the horror of this alternate, medieval world happening in the middle of 1960s America. Helping to build all of this are the great performances all around. Herisse gives us Elwood as he comes to better understand what he’s up against at Nickel and formulate a new plan to deal with it. Ellis-Taylor also helps to place Elwood’s story in the larger context of history and how she hoped better things for him than the circumstance he was forced into. A Available for purchase on VOD.
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (R)
Renée Zellweger’s Bridget Jones is once again a single lady but this time has kids and a welcome amount of maturity in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, the fourth Bridget Jones movie but possibly the truest one to the characters since the first one.
Bridget Jones and Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) really did, finally at last, live happily ever after. They have a lovely house in London and two lovely kids — Billy (Casper Knopf) and Mabel (Mila Jankovic). And their usual suspect circle of friends: longtime buds Shazzer (Sally Phillips), Jude (Shirley Henderson) and Tom (James Callis) as well as work buds Miranda (Sarah Solemani) and Talitha (Josette Simon) and even, as the kids call him, Uncle Daniel (Hugh Grant) — onetime Mark rival Daniel Cleaver. But then four years before the start of this movie, Mark, on a humanitarian mission, is killed and Bridget Darcy is suddenly a widow. After attending a memorial outing for Mark and getting barraged with advice about moving on and jumping back into dating, a frazzled but determined Bridget decides that she will in fact make an effort to live and be a part of the world. She tries out dating again with the much-young Roxster (Leo Woodall). She heads back to work. She actively advocates for her son, reserved like his dad, with his science teacher Mr. Wallaker (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who dings Billy’s grade for adding “heaven” to an illustration of the levels of the atmosphere. Because this is Bridget Jones, she also worries about her appearance, tries some not-entirely-legal lip plumper, reacquaints herself with her shapewear and says yes to way too many things at her kids’ school. She also turns to gynecologist Dr. Rawlings (Emma Thompson) for advice about everything when she probably needs a therapist, which is really just an excuse to slide the droll and awesome Thompson into a few scenes telling Bridget to just carry on.
Not all of the Bridget Jones sequels made sense or felt true to the characters as they were set up in the first movie way back in 2001 but this one really does feel like we’re catching up with those original characters who have grown and changed but also still care for each other. The friend chemistry with Bridget and her three OG buds feels exactly right, as does her relationship with Daniel and the way Hugh Grant has aged Daniel, maturing him in some ways but very much not in others. Bridget and Mark’s relationship, freed of the middle two movies’ need to keep them apart for nonsense reasons, finally feels like the relationship we’d expect them to have — both what they had before Mark died and how Bridget feels now. Bridget is still deeply in love with Mark, and aware that she will always be deeply in love with Mark and always be with him, to some degree, because of their kids. And she is deeply in love with their family, a family that is still actively keeping him a part of it even as they try to move on without him. She comes to terms, over the course of the movie, with the idea that she can love Mark in this way, always be his Mrs. Darcy, and still make new connections, fall in love again without leaving him behind. It’s sweet and grown-up and unexpectedly romantic. B+ Streaming on Peacock.
One of Them Days (R)
Roommates Dreux and Alyssa have just nine hours to make $1,500 in rent or get kicked out of their apartment in One of Them Days, a very middle-of-the-road-but-in-a-good-way action-on-a-clock comedy.
On the morning of the first of the month, landlord Uche (Rizi Timane) tells Dreux (Keke Palmer) and Alyssa (SZA) that he never received their rent money, which Alyssa’s boyfriend Keshawn (Joshua David Neal) was supposed to deliver to Uche, and that if they don’t come up with the money by 6 p.m. he’s evicting them. When attempting to get the money back from Keshawn doesn’t work — he’s “invested” it in a line of T-shirts he plans to sell — they attempt to figure out other ways to get $1,500 including donating way too much blood and getting a payday loan. Meanwhile, at 4 p.m. Dreux has an interview with the corporate office of the diner franchise she works for as a waitress; she’s hoping to secure a manager job that could dramatically change her fortunes. Later in the movie, after the women sell a seemingly abandoned pair of Air Jordans, local tough guy King Lolo (Amin Joseph) informs them that they have until 8 p.m. to get him $5,000 for those sneakers, which were his. Thus does the movie regularly count down until potential catastrophes as Dreux and Alyssa find themselves in increasingly desperate and ridiculous situations.
This is a perfectly fine movie with a few moments of standout comedy and very good friends-for-life chemistry between SZA and Keke Palmer. Their chemistry probably does most of the work of making this movie the fun hang that it is and pulling all the characters and wackiness (Janelle James as a phlebotomist on her first day, Keyla Monterrosa Mejia as an unsympathetic payday loan office) together into something that has moments of real heart. BIn theaters and available for rent or purchase.
Dog Man (PG)
“Supa cop” Dog Man captures and recaptures and recaptures again the villainous cat Petey in Dog Man, a brightly-colored animated movie based on the graphic novels by Dav Pilkey.
Dog Man (who doesn’t talk but Peter Hastings provides the Dog Man noises) is born when the head of a very smart police dog is sewn onto the body of a not-smart police man with top-notch martial arts skills after both are injured in an explosion. Now containing the best attributes of both man and dog, Dog Man becomes a hero — making friends with kids, playing piano for old people, generally solving crimes and capturing Petey (voice of Pete Davidson). Capturing Petey a lot because this super smart cat keeps escaping from cat jail. Eventually, Petey’s many escapes get the mayor (voice of Cheri Oteri) so mad that she demands that the police chief (voice of Lil Rel Howery) kick Dog Man off the case. Dog Man is mad he can’t go after Petey but he accepts the assignment to keep an eye on Flippy (voice of Ricky Gervais), an evil fish who is dead and definitely not coming back to life unless someone exposed him to Living Spray at the Living Spray Factory and who would do that, that’s just crazy talk.
Meanwhile, Petey, after having a falling out with his assistant who wants to be paid in money rather than bottle caps or chocolate coins, decides to make his own assistant by cloning himself. He didn’t quite realize, however, that one of the steps of cloning was to wait 18 years until the clone matured into an adult, which is how Petey ends up with Li’l Petey (voice of Lucas Hopkins Calderon), an adorable, adoring kitty version of himself who calls him Papa.
As with the Pilkey books, the movie is humor-rich, with smart visuals that have a hand-drawn askew-ness and clever written elements like spelled-as-spoken words such as “supa” and “OhKay” that all fit with Dog Man’s existence as a comic book by kids George and Harold, the main characters of Captain Underpants. Also like the books, the movie has moments of real heart, such as in Petey’s relationship with Li’l Petey, which is strongly impacted by his own difficult relationship with his father (voice of Stephen Root). This is the kind of story where buildings come alive and turn into lumbering monsters, one of which farts, but also where a character considers the harms of generational trauma and how to break the cycle. But don’t worry, the movie accomplishes its emotional tasks without losing the kid audience! The movie does all its smart emotional stuff under the cover of robots like 80HD and a series of inventions called the “Somethingerother 2000” and pratfalls and dog face licks and just general silliness that don’t slow down the things that keep kids engaged. AIn theaters.
There are any number of ways to get inspiration in the kitchen and to become more thoughtful about your food. Dawn Aurora Hunt has a new one: a deck of cards.
“This is the Kitchen Witch Culinary Oracle Deck,” Hunt said. “This is different from a tarot deck, because a tarot deck has suits and you’ll always have certain cards. This is a fun tool; you could use it for insight and inspiration, but you could use it just for cool recipe ideas.”
The Culinary Oracular Deck is a set of 50 large, illustrated cards, similar in appearance to tarot cards, each with a different kitchen ingredient or tool.
Hunt, the owner of Cucina Aurora Kitchen Witchery in Salem, spends a lot of time thinking deeply about cooking and the sharing of food.
“Everything I do is about cooking with love,” she said, “cooking with intention and finding a deeper meaning in food and our connection to food through the seasons and mindfulness.” It was this introspective examination that led to the development of her new Oracular Deck. “I was teaching classes on the deeper meanings of simple food ingredients for a while and people have been saying to me, ‘You know, this would make a really cool oracle deck, so that people could take the class and work with that information in an easy way.’ I have a couple of other cookbooks that I wrote that are sort of themed similarly; this has been a natural progression for that.”
Hunt used one of the cards as an example. “One way that you might use these cards would be in the morning while you are maybe having a cup of coffee or getting ready for your day, you might shuffle up the cards and pull one card out of the deck. Maybe you pull the card that says ‘eggs’. Eggs are associated with new birth, new life and fertility. So you might read about the symbolic meaning of eggs on the egg card, and it says that your endeavors are about to reap rewards. What have you been working on? What have you been working toward or fighting for? When the egg card shows up for you, things in your life are about to come together. So you can take that message into your day.”
Alternatively, Hunt said, you might not have eaten eggs in a while and this might simply inspire you to cook or eat something eggy. Each card has suggestions of dishes and a simple recipe. So you might find yourself making quiche for dinner. Almost all the recipes are ones that are easily customizable.
According to Hunt, that was a deliberate decision.
“I have a ton of food allergies,” she said. “So when I am creating recipes, I’m coming from a perspective of whether I can eat this and how people with other limitations might enjoy it. So there’s always comments in my recipes about how to make something gluten-free or how to make it dairy-free or if you’re vegan maybe you want to do this other thing. I try to make it as accessible as possible. I try to keep all of my recipes simple, accessible. And in most cases you probably already have 75 percent of the ingredients lying around your house. The truth is, the simpler the recipe, the simpler the ingredients — in my opinion — the better the meal is. The more we connect with those ingredients and the closer we are to Mother Earth and what Earth is giving us.”
Oracle Deck
A Kitchen Witch’s Culinary Oracle Deck: Gain Daily Insight and Bring Magic to Your Meals with Everyday Ingredients is available through the Cucina Aurora website, or where books are sold, and costs $24.95.
There will be a launch party for the deck at Moon River Wellness Center (17 Windham Road, Pelham, 635-8938, moonriverwellnesscenter.com) Sunday, Feb. 23, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Admission is free.
Lenny Demers is frustrated at how a lot of people see martial arts.
“I hear a lot of, ‘This is going to take me a couple of months,’” he said. “They’ll say, ‘I’m going to be a black belt in a couple of months. And I’m going to be able to fight 20 guys with knives and guns coming at me.’ And I try to tell them, ‘That’s not self-defense. That’s a movie. That’s not practical. Self-defense is when you’re minding your business, someone sneaks up and grabs you by your neck, and you react really quickly, and you get out of it.’”
Demers, the owner/operator of Kenpo Academy of Self Defense in Londonderry, is a master of Shaolin kenpo karate but also teaches classes in taekwondo, kickboxing, Brazilian jiu jitsu and several martial arts weapons. Many of Kenpo Academy’s classes are geared toward children, but some of Demers’ most rewarding experiences over the years have been with adult students.
“I have a lot of adult students that I’m very proud of,” he said. “I have one kid that started with me when he was 5 years old — him and his twin sister. They became like part of my family. They’ve been with me for 25 years. He just got his sixth degree [black belt in karate]. His sister is a fourth degree. ”
Adults, he said — most adults, anyway — have an easier time wrapping their heads around the emotional aspects of karate.
“Everyone thinks karate’s all just about the anger,” he said, “punching and hitting. I say karate’s mostly about your mind, calming your mind down, keeping cool, keeping calm instead of freaking out. We talk about that a lot. Adults will take a step back a little bit, once in a while, I think, but kids don’t.”
Andrew Jefferson, owner (and instructor) of Bulsajo Kaekwondo in Goffstown, agrees that the martial arts are as much about emotional development as they are about shouting, kicking and throwing. He teaches taekwondo to students from 4 years old to 70.
“There’s a lot of character development,” Jefferson said. “You see it a lot in kids because we are giving kids extra structure and teaching them discipline and about being respectful, but you do see it just as much in teens and adults. For them it’s [rooted in] how they work really hard and overcome an obstacle and that helps them improve their self-confidence and their determination.”
“Character-building has always been part of martial arts because being a warrior or a soldier, you have to have a certain level of confidence and belief in yourself. And I think that that just carries over from old and ancient times, if you will, to modern times. And so martial arts are a great way to help people build character.”
Bulsajo Taekwondo. Courtesy photo.
Jefferson said adults come to taekwondo for many reasons, some philosophical and character-driven, but most come for practical reasons.
“Depending on the time of the year,” he said, “their reasoning for coming in is, ‘Well, it’s something I’ve always wanted to do and now I’m getting around to doing it.’ Or sometimes, like around the new year, they’ll … want to lose some weight, or gain flexibility, or get in shape, and martial arts seems like a fun way to do it.”
“Kids are also very fun to teach,” Jefferson said, “but there’s something about adults overcoming obstacles or gaining abilities that they never thought they would that feels even better.”
Linda Murphy, the owner of Bare Knuckle Murphy’s Boxing Gymnasium and Go Ninja Circus Arts in Manchester, is something of an outlier among martial artists; she teaches mostly adults. “This studio is primarily focused on competitive fighting arts, like kickboxing and boxing — USAB-style boxing,” she said. “We have a lot of people in their 20s and 30s, but we do have older people. We have right now a man who’s in his 50s and he wants to compete in boxing. There is a Master’s Division [for older competitors] and he’s doing really well. There is a kind of a team sort of atmosphere here. It’s not like the traditional bowing, black belt; it’s more military style.”
Murphy has been involved in a variety of styles of martial arts for many years.
“I started in a Japanese style and went into a Korean style,” she said. “I got black belts in those. And then shodokan and then taekwondo. But I’ve studied a lot of different things. I taught self-defense at Dartmouth College and took wing chun, like a kung fu style, up there. I’ve studied some sabbat, some tai chi, like just different things.”
Over the years, Murphy said, the approach to martial arts in her gym has changed.
“This place started out in 1978,” she said. “It was like a lot of very traditional martial arts out in that time period; people wouldn’t hit each other.” Gradually Murphy shifted to a more full-contact approach, centered on actually winning fights, in the ring or on the street. Now her gym attracts students from many walks of life.
“We get a lot of people who have a background in sports,” she said. “They take an interest in boxing or kickboxing before and want to come in and try it. I usually know they’re going to love it because they already have an understanding of what it is like to train for a sport activity. Boxing has a lot of detail on balance, footwork, head movement, positioning of how your body needs to be, and then all the strategy and the conditioning that go with it. We also get people who have done nothing. One of our coaches, who’s so much fun, he did art and ate potato chips all through high school and then finally dared to come into boxing. He was about 26 and now he’s one of the top [boxers] in New England in the 165-pound class.”
In addition to full-contact martial arts, Murphy teaches gymnastics-based circus skills tumbling, trapeze and silks. While the students in the ring tend to be men, her circus students are generally women, she said. “That tends to be more women,” she said, “but guys are always asking if they can do it. So I’ll include them if they want. Usually the easiest sell is the guys that want to compete because they want to do whatever it takes to get better at their activity. Plus they might be a little more confident to cross over that line.”
“People find that interesting. I find it interesting.”
Jason Bryant is the owner and head instructor at Leverage Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Concord. He said that while Brazilian jiu jitsu (or BJJ) is one of the fastest-growing sports in the country it is also a very effective form of self-defense. [BJJ is] a martial art or a sport that’s grappling-based,” he explained, “so it’s very similar to wrestling. However, instead of pins we use submissions to win a match, if we’re talking competition. It’s a very hands-on physical sport that uses a lot of leverage, which is why I named my gym that. [Jiu jitsu] uses leverage techniques to overcome someone who might be able to beat you with, let’s say, strength. Classically, it would allow a smaller person to beat a larger, stronger person in a self-defense situation. So it’s a very effective self-defense.“
Bryant said one of the reasons he loves BJJ is that it is built around community values.
Brazilian jiu jitsu. Courtesy of Leverage Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
“I have people who come in that will never compete but they get in great shape through training here,” he said. “BJJ is great for law enforcement and first responders, which is something I’m passionate about. With law enforcement, they have to get hands-on a lot. And first responders too, which I hadn’t thought of until I opened the gym. [They might have to deal with] someone who may have overdosed or did something on some substance and they have to get hands-on with them and you’re an EMT, so you may have to know how to kind of handle a person. So it gives you the tools to handle another person physically while doing it with compassion so you don’t have to hurt someone. We don’t have strikes, so it’s not like we’re kicking and punching each other. So it’s very effective when it comes to being hands-on and controlling another person’s body and keeping both people safe.”
There is not really any one type of person who studies BJJ, Bryant said. “It’s a broad mix of people. We have a handful of police officers. We have firefighters that train here, nurses that train here; it’s a very family-oriented group in here. We have a lot of kids whose parents train here. My wife trains here. Both of my kids train here. They want an activity that can help them feel safer, gain some confidence, get in better shape, and have a lot of fun, and building this community of people.”
The prices martial arts studios charge their students varies widely, depending on the style of martial art they teach, and the intensity with which students want to train. Most will offer one or two free classes for new students to get a feel for the experience.
“We offer a two-class pass,” Lenny Demers said, “so students can come in and it costs nothing. I show them what we teach. I don’t expect them to remember everything that I’m teaching them, but I teach them about basic self-defense, defense against somebody grabbing you, defense against somebody pushing you, defense against somebody punching you. They’re not going to master it in the two classes, but in those two classes they’ll get an idea of how I teach and what I teach. I don’t change. If you don’t like me Day 1, you’re not going to like me Day 2. If you love the class Day 1, you’ll love the class Day 2, because it doesn’t change. All they need to do is wear some baggy clothes and come in with an ‘I can” attitude and have fun.”
Depending on what they want to learn and who they want to study from, many martial arts studio owners say adults should expect to pay about $150 per month for wice-weekly classes.
Andrew Jefferson agrees.
“I would say you’re going to be paying over $100 a month for at least two or three days a week,” he said. “Some schools will cost more if their overhead is greater or they have more instructors they have to pay. I would like to help be on the end of the spectrum where I’m a little cheaper for people who need that and don’t have the funds for a bigger full-time school. I’m filling a niche.”
“It’s pretty basic, a monthly, kind of monthly plan, like most fitness gyms would be,” Jason Bryant said. “I offer different tiers based on training frequency, unlimited plans so someone could come in here every single day with a class as much as they want. We mostly charge month-to-month. Some people will have a seat during a sports season and then maybe they’ll pause the membership for a couple months so they can go play or watch a sport. I don’t want finances to be a speed bump for why someone couldn’t come train in jiu jitsu.”
Ultimately, the instructors of martial arts studios say they teach for the love of their particular style and to have a chance to do it full-time. Andrew Jefferson put it like this: “This is pretty great. It’s amazing because it’s such a positive environment and we’re helping people make positive changes. Even on your most trying days you still go home with a smile because you’re doing good work. It’s a rewarding job that I really, really like and honestly I can’t imagine doing anything but teach martial arts.”
Returning to the practice
Roland Cere and Bill Big study taekwondo at Bulsajo Taekwondo in Goffstown.
They are both in their mid-60s and have come back from fairly stark physical challenges in recent years.
“I have a lot of injuries,” Big said. “I’ve got seven fused vertebrae in my neck and two more fused down below. And because of my injuries and some other things, my flexibility has been diminishing to the point where I feel like my body has been atrophied. I felt like, well, I remember I used to do tai chi as well and that helped, helped that a lot. So I decided to go back and just go easy and see if that would help with my flexibility and my pain and so on and so forth. And I have found that it has helped with those things.”
Big said that making real progress in taekwondo has meant a combination of gaining flexibility and learning to work around his physical limitations.
“I’ve been able to pick up some of those flexibility and skills and then I know that I cannot do certain other things because of all the metal in me and I find that I have to dismiss one technique, but I can focus in on a different one instead.”
Cere faced similar challenges.
“I have a steel rod with screws in my back,” he said, grimacing, “also, fusion and four back surgeries. I was told I could never walk again. This was eight years ago, and here I am walking.”
Both men studied martial arts in their youth and came back to it in the past few years. Both of them worked their way, belt by belt, to earn second degree black belts in taekwondo last fall. This came at the cost of constant, relentless practice, which has been a source of pride to both men.
“Martial arts have helped me get my self-confidence back,” Big said. “Because I was told if I moved the wrong way or fell down or this or that, I could easily be paralyzed for life, but I loved [martial arts] 20 years ago, so I said, ‘You know what? I’m just going to do it, and test it out.’ I was really scared to do anything, but slowly but surely, It has been wonderfully helpful.” He said his improvements have been as much psychological as physical. “This really gave me something to focus on and think about and it’s really helped my attitude. It’s improved my outlook in life and given me that confidence to be able to get back in there and do things.”
“And to surround yourself with wonderful people,” Cere added. “I mean, there isn’t a jerk in this whole place. Everybody is very helpful and courteous. For me, taekwondo has been a fountain of youth.”
Big added that in his experience martial arts has been a team effort. “You’ve got to get up,” he said. “You have to do the kicks, you have to do the punches, but it’s also a bit of a team player thing. Learning from others, working with them, getting feedback — I think that that really makes a great difference.” —John Fladd
What are some of the styles of martial arts that are taught in our area?
American Kenpo Karate
“Our system is based on the principles of situational awareness, stability, balance, coordination, power, flow, and timing, all teaching the maximum application of motion through following natural geometry in a ‘Universal Pattern’ and mathematics. Adults that are looking for a system that can be adapted to fit individual ability and energy levels would find our art to their liking.” —Jason Cote, Studio Operations Director, Concord Karate Studio and Academy, 89 Fort Eddy Road, 224-5425, cks-nh.com
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
“Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) is a grappling sport where the mat serves as your ally, and having trustworthy training partners is essential for a safe and effective training environment. BJJ draws a wide range of individuals, such as fitness aficionados, martial arts enthusiasts, those interested in self-defense, trauma survivors, veterans, and people who appreciate the social environment of training and the camaraderie found in a dojo. Ultimately, BJJ is an inclusive sport that welcomes people of all ages, backgrounds and fitness levels.” —Tony McBee, owner and Head Instructor, New England BJJ Academy, 30 Henniker St., Concord, 369-4764, nebjj.com
Enshu Do
“Enshudo is a straightforward traditional self-defense art. There are few forms, and memorization is not a priority, but the techniques have been tested over the last half century. The class is perfectly suited for a busy person who is interested in learning self-defense but doesn’t have the time for an extensive curriculum. The atmosphere is relaxed, and training is as gentle or as intense as you and your classmates want it to be.” —Chris Marsh, owner, Independent Martial Arts School, 138 Lake St., Nashua, 882-6917, imasnh.com
Jiu Jitsu (as opposed to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu)
“Jiu jitsu as applied for self-defense is going to be more conducive regardless of your weight or your size. You’re using leverage, advantage positions against a stronger, more powerful opponent. You don’t have to be physically gifted or athletic or in any type of condition or shape to apply the skills that are highly effective for self-defense. If you’re willing to learn and put in a little bit of effort , then it becomes effective. Nothing is an overnight success.” —Christopher Koneles, owner/instructor of Martial Arts Zone, Manchester, 31 Auburn St., Manchester, 206-5716, themartialartszone.com
Judo
“[Competition] judo is the ability to off-balance your opponent and throw them to the ground with sufficient force to score a full point, and if that’s not possible, throw them to the ground and score half point and finish with a submission. Typically the people that do well [in judo] are folks who are physical and have kept themselves in relatively good shape through the years. It is not something I would recommend for somebody looking to get in shape.” —Lee Rossi, owner and Chief Instructor, Checkmate Martial Arts, 200 Elm St., Manchester, 666-5836, checkmateselfdefense.com
Krav Maga
“Krav Maga, it’s not a martial art. It’s sometimes categorized into that, but it’s more of a combat science or system of self-defense. It was formulated by a gentleman named Yimi Lichtenfeld in Israel for the Israeli military. We don’t do things like sparring or gameplay. We don’t have a gamification of violence because we don’t engage in any activity that does not lead to the immediate resolution of a situation, whether that be to have physical violence or to de-escalate or to run away. The people who come [to us] are people who are looking to defend themselves, people who are looking to not get into fights, people who want to feel a little bit more safe walking around.” —Joe Estee, IMI Krav Maga, 150 Nashua Road, Londonderry, 617-774-7188, dotokushin.com
Muay Thai
Muay Thai is an art, a martial art from Thailand, and it’s known as the art of eight limbs, so your punches, your elbows, your knees and your kicks. It originated as their military weapons and how they would defend their borders and such. And then it has eventually evolved into a sport, and it’s the national sport of Thailand. It’s an art that can be modified if you have injuries or limitations, but it’s great for physical fitness, stress relief, coordination, confidence and empowerment. It’s just a sport that everybody can do. —Laura Barchard, instructor, Professional Martial Arts Academy, 15 E. Broadway, Derry, 301-4252, pmaderry.com
Shaolin Kenpo Karate
To me, Shaolin kenpo is the most practical form of self-defense. It’s very practical, it’s very fast. You defend yourself and you get out of there. It’s not very flashy, it’s not very flowery. It’s basic self-defense. Somebody’s trying to hurt you, you defend yourself and you get out of there. Everybody works with their own ability; we have a wide variety of age range and levels. I have a lot of students that come in from other styles that they’ve stopped — ‘I made it to brown belt 10 years ago; I would love to get my black belt’ — and we help them. —Lenny Demers, owner, Kenpo Academy of Self Defense, Crossroads Mall, 123 Nashua Road, Londonderry, 437-9900, kenpo-academy.com
Shotokan Karate
Shotokan is a very traditional style of Japanese martial arts. The focus is on strong stances. We do katas, which are forms or memorized steps that have self-defense within them. Our focus is on spiritual growth as far as trying to perfect techniques, trying to build a strong body [and] a strong mind. Some of our adults started in a different style and chose shotokan because, even though it’s a strong style, we’re not full-contact, trying to beat each other up all day, so you can do it as you get older as well. —Sarah Beth Gosselin, Chief Instructor, Phoenix Fire Martial Arts, 79 Plaistow Road, Plaistow, 234-8665, phnixfire.com
Taekwondo
Taekwondo is a mixture of karate and Korean martial arts like taekyeon, modernized. It emphasizes simple techniques and is easy to learn. It is very popular in the Olympics and for its dramatic kicking techniques. Taekwondo would suit any adult, especially one who is wanting to not just improve like maybe not just learn self-defense but also be able to learn how to make improvements to their well-being or to their like self-improvement. —Andrew Jefferson, Bulsajo Kaekwondo, 703-1914, bulsajotkd.com
Tai Chi Chuan
“Tai chi chuan is a low-impact training method that helps to develop one’s internal energy and external strength. Based on self-defense movements, the tai chi chuan forms are practiced as a series of movements connected in a flowing pattern and performed slowly to gain precision and deep body awareness. Adult students of any age who want a holistic approach to wellness should consider tai chi chuan as a means to remain active, promote balance control and improve their health.” —Laoshi Michael Coulon (Yang YaHua), NH Yang Chengfu Tai Chi Chuan Center, 107 Alsace St., Manchester, 623-2371, nhyangtaichi.com
Martial arts for self-defense
Many martial arts studios teach classes in self-defense geared toward women.
Maddie Pratte is in charge of the Women Empowered Program (WEP) at Manchester Karate Studio (371 S. Willow St., Manchester, 625-5835, manchesterkarate.com). She said her program is designed to provide practical solutions to common dangers many women face.
“Our classes are for women only,” Pratte said. “The program addresses 20 physical threat scenarios and 20 possible solutions to them. Because typically in most physical conflicts men are generally physically bigger and stronger, we provide women with strategies that don’t depend on physical strength.”
As with other areas of martial arts, Pratte said much of the WEP training is psychological.
“Self-defense for women isn’t just about punching and kicking,” she said. “It has just as much to do with risk assessment and setting boundaries.” Because many women are socialized to please other people, she said, it can be hard for them to be assertive in the face of aggression.
Linda Murphy, the owner and operator of Bare Knuckle Murphy’s Boxing Gym (163 Lake Ave, Manchester, 623-6066, bareknucklemurphy.com) agrees.
Murphy’s Gym. Photo by John Fladd.
“When I teach women self-defense,” Murphy said, “I like to do a variety of things. We talk a lot about boundary-setting, knowing about how to set boundaries, and verbal assertiveness, which is the midpoint between being aggressive and being passive. I like to give set words and have people practice them.”
“I think culturally we might be either too aggressive or maybe passive altogether,” Murphy said. “I coach a lot of guys, so I see it in both, but women have some different issues — self-defense when it comes to, like, dating violence or sexual assault. Women have to set a boundary in that regard, which can be hard if you want to be liked or, you know, it’s just like a difficult thing to navigate. So I think having words to help with that. And then also I like to do educating on the type of people that might be more likely to not listen to a boundary when you set it and realize that those people [are people you] can be more aware of, or keep a distance from, or maybe realize that’s not a person to date.” —John Fladd
Find a studio
Many martial arts studios offer classes or workshops in self-defense for women, but they don’t always display information about them clearly on their websites or social media.
If you have children who study at a particular school or you are looking for classes near where you live, call any studio and ask if they have any programs specifically for women.
If you find yourself in a dangerous relationship, the NH Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence has a 24/7 statewide helpline to get in touch with a caring and trained advocate at 866-644-3574.
Featured Image: Lenny Demers of Kenpo Academy of Self Defense in Londonderry (courtesy photo).
A play with humor, intelligence, drama and the pacing of a West Wing episode, Jon Klein’s Faithless arrived on director Monique Peaslee Foote’s desk at an inconvenient time. New Hampshire Theatre Project head Sean Robinson gave her the script, asking if she’d give it a read, when “I was in no position, with no desire to do it,” she said by phone recently.
Then she dug into the story of a family crisis confronting Gus, an aging atheist, and his two grown stepchildren; Calvin, a minister, and Claire, who teaches comparative religion but is a skeptic until a head injury causes her to think she’s seen the divine. The cause of the conclave is Gus’s adopted teenage daughter Rosie, who’s decided she wants to become a nun.
“I was hooked after three pages,” Foote said. “Number one, it’s funny, and I think we’re at a time in life where that’s good. It’s witty, and it’s fast-paced…. I’m all about a 90-minute show, no intermission these days. Get me there, tell me the story, and then I’m going to peace out. And that’s what this piece does.”
Foote describes the play’s four actors as “whip smart” — Jim Sears playing Gus, Stephanie Lazenby as Claire, Matt Recine in the role of Calvin, with Michelle Levine playing Rosie. “Each of them, their comedic timing is everything,” she said. “I mean, I have to do little to no work, because they’re bringing all of it.”
Preparation began at a pace befitting the script. “I knew the rehearsal process wasn’t super long, so as a director, I set the scaffolding,” Foote said. “Sometimes you get those golden groups of people where they all kind of get it, and we started that way — everybody got it. We’re all on the same page at the same pace.”
Blocking done, the cast was ready, she continued. “Now we get to play. Let’s dig into the layers of these guys. The biggest problem for us in rehearsals is to stop them from laughing. I’m like, all right, guys, get [it] together, like, let’s go. Because they’re funny, they’re just hilarious people. So we’re all there just laughing our tails off. It’s great.”
Faithless is the first Klein work that Foote’s been involved with. “He’s pretty clever,” she said. “Quite frankly, I haven’t done a ton of research on Mr. Klein, but what he has right is the story, and the way people talk to each other. The banter, the way they just throw it back and forth is really wonderful and real.”
In a review of a Washington, D.C., production of the play, DC Theatre Arts writer Amy Kotkin agreed. “The playwright’s sure-fire dialogue combines lofty questions with very funny analogies to popular culture,” she wrote. “Watch how he references time-shares, dodgeballs, crowbars, and Little House on the Prairie as his all-too-human characters slug it out.”
Foote joined New Hampshire Theatre Project in 2009 as an actor. Directing “is fairly new to me, but I really think I love it,” she said, Collected Stories, a two-woman play she directed last year starring Genevieve Aichele and Amy Desrosiers, was nominated for multiple New Hampshire Theatre Alliance awards.
“We didn’t win, but it was nice to be seen,” she said, adding that the experience reinforced her commitment to NHTP.
“I have a personal passion for the organization because it does really smart theater, and it tells really smart stories,” she said. “The foundation of their work is starting a conversation [and] that’s what I’m here for. They want to bring the tough stuff out and get people talking about it, because that’s where community starts. That’s where we find our humanness, in the conversation.”
Faithless When: Fridays, 7:30 p.m., Saturdays, 4 p.m. and Sundays, 2:30 p.m. through March 9 Where: New Hampshire Theatre Project, 959 Islington St., Portsmouth Tickets: $28 and up at portsmouthnhtickets.com
Featured photo: Jim Sears, Stephanie Lazenby, Michelle Levine, and Matt Recine. Courtesy photo.
During her Feb. 13 budget address, Gov. Kelly Ayotte announced “a landfill moratorium and a revamped regulatory process for approving these projects going forward, to ensure that our beauty as a state is not compromised,” according to text of the address available at governor.nh.gov. New Hampshire has six large landfills including “two private mega-landfills” in Bethlehem and Rochester and “roughly half of the waste buried in New Hampshire landfills comes from out of state,” according to a press release from the Conservation Law Foundation. “For too long, our state has been burdened with out-of-state waste, leading to harmful pollution,” said Tom Irwin, vice president of Conservation Law Foundation, in the statement. “While this is a significant first step, more work remains. It’s essential that we prioritize waste reduction and implement innovative solutions to ensure that waste disposal is only a last resort.” For more on that organization, see clf.org.
More from Ayotte
In her address presenting her recommended budget for fiscal year 2026-2027, Ayotte said, “In comparison to our last budget, we are spending $150 million less in General Funds. This adjustment in General Funds was undertaken smartly and thoughtfully, with a scalpel, not a shovel. It does so without across the board cuts and prioritizing those who are depending on services provided by the State,” according to the text at governor.nh.gov. Ayotte highlighted aspects of the budget including that: “This budget … ensures that our education system has the resources it needs. We are making a $98.8 million investment in special education, nearly a 50% increase from the previous biennium.” Ayotte’s address also highlighted that the budget “sends more money to the local level,” “begins the overhaul of the Group 2 retirement system,” “expands education freedom to all public school students,” “will help get cell phones out of the classroom,” and “continues the tuition freeze at our community colleges” among other points. In discussing cuts, Ayotte said “We focused on making our government more efficient and ensuring tax dollars do more with less. We cut bloated contracts with out-of-state vendors, took a hard look at how our agencies operate and worked with commissioners to dial in spending. … We brought our adult Medicaid eligibility back in line with pre-pandemic levels and joined our neighbors in requiring nominal copays for those receiving these benefits.”
See the full address at governor.nh.gov/news/2025-budget-address. You can find the text of Ayotte’s recommended budget at gc.nh.gov/lba/budget/fy2026_2027_budget.aspx.
Chamber prez retires
Tim Sink, president and CEO of the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce, will step down from his position on Sept. 30, according to a Chamber press release. Sink has been Chamber president for nearly 33 years. “I have had the privilege of serving this dynamic chamber through some challenging and exciting times. It has been an incredible and fulfilling opportunity and I am beyond grateful for the hundreds of talented and generous volunteers and staff that have helped build this organization into what it is today,” Sink said in a statement in the release.
Tech support
United Way of Greater Nashua has expanded its Digital Navigator Program, which provides tree technology assistance at locations throughout the community, according to a press release. Find digital navigators available to the public at Rodgers Memorial Library in Hudson (on Tuesdays from 1 to 2 p.m.) and navigators available for clients, congregants and residents at Nashua Presbyterian Church, Coliseum Residence, AHEPA 35 and H.E.A.R.T.S. Peer Support, the release said. The United Way of Greater Nashua is looking for additional Digital Navigator locations as well as volunteers for the program; contact [email protected] for details. See unitedwaynashua.org.
Homeownership
New Hampshire Housing, “a self-supporting public corporation that promotes, finances, and supports housing solutions for the people of New Hampshire,” according to its website, will hold a Homeownership Conference on Tuesday, March 18, from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Grappone Conference Center in Concord. Tickets cost $50 and include breakfast, according to an email about the event. The agenda for the conference includes: “Housing Market & Policy Update,” “AI and Digital Innovation in Real Estate & Lending,” “Economic Outlook: Market Trends & Interest Rates” and “Housing Solutions Panel: Innovation in Action,” the email said. See nhhfa.org.
For the dogs
Salem Animal Rescue League (4 SARL Drive in Salem; sarlnh.org) is holding a Pot of Gold raffle through March 17, according to a press release. The League is selling 350 tickets for $50 each with the big winner taking home $5,000, the release said. The next early bird drawing, for $200, will be held on March 3, the release said. All proceeds from the raffle will support the animals at the League, the release said.
Every Little Thing (NR, 2025), a documentary about a woman who cares for hummingbirds in Los Angeles, will screen at Sweeney Hall auditorium at NHTI in Concord as part of the NHTI Friday Night Film Series on Friday, Feb. 21, at 7 p.m. Admission costs $10 at the door, cash or check.
The Pembroke Historical Society’s presentation of “Vanished Veterans: An Illustrated Introduction to NH’s Civil War Monuments and Memorials” by historian George Morrison was delayed due to weather and now you can catch it on Thursday, March 6, at 7 p.m. at the Pembroke Town Library, 313 Pembroke St. in Pembroke. The event is free and open to the public. Call 566-1031 for info.
Local Street Eats, 112 W. Pearl St. in Nashua, will host a Boozy Book Swap on Tuesday, March 4, at 6 p.m. Bring up to 10 gently used books with “a little note on a sticky note sharing what you loved about each book and stick it to the cover,” according to the event description. A $25 ticket comes with a glass of wine and a personal charcuterie plate (a full menu is available for purchase). Browse others’ offerings and take up to as many books as you brought. See local-streeteats.com.
Students from Rochester’s Spaulding High School designed and painted a new mural for Max the Moose, New Hampshire’s mascot who is housed at the New Hampshire Department of Education. Max’s new background is a mural showcasing the White Mountains and created with paints and paint markers, according to a department press release.
The Nashua Garden Club will host a program on “Groundcovers: What are They and How to Use Them” presented by Kathie Skinner, lifetime master gardener, on Wednesday, March 5, at 7 p.m. at First Baptist Church, 121 Manchester St. in Nashua. The event is free and open to the public. See nashuanhgardenclub.org.
