Fine artist and writer Jordan Moss shared with us his experience of recovering from brain cancer and how that gave birth to his creative life. March is National Disability Awareness Month. Thank you so much to Jordan for sharing his story and to everyone who came out.

We had a wonderful time at Downey's Bar and Grill celebrating the beginning of St. Patrick's Day season with the Allen Gogarty Trio including Patrick Madden on fiddle and Donie Ryan on banjo. The food was delicious and the company and community were the best. Thanks so much to everyone who came out!

We had a fantastic timing reading "Remarkably Bright Creatures" by Shelby Van Pelt. Next book club April 3rd

Thank you to these wonderful poets who shared their inspiring, moving, provocative new work last night -- Lee Huttner, Janeth Benjamin, Michael Steigman, Perry Brass and Orlando Ferrand -- and thanks to everyone who came out. 

We had an amazing opening for Noel Hefele's exhibit "Daylighting Tibbetts En Plein Air" -- the exhibit includes 15 watercolor paintings following the path of Tibbetts Brook as it will be brought back up into the daylight in a massive project being done by the city of New York. There is more information here on Van Cortlandt Park Alliance's website.

Thanks to everyone who came out. Thanks to Stephanie Ehrlich and Christina Taylor from VCP Alliance for speaking about the project. 

The exhibit will run through March 29th. Gallery Hours are Fridays, 2-4pm.

We had another great book club discussing And the Mountains Echoed, the third novel by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini. Published in 2013 by Riverhead Books. The book is written similarly to a collection of short stories, with each of the nine chapters being told from the perspective of a different character. The book's foundation is built on the relationship between ten-year-old Abdullah and his three-year-old sister Pari and their father's decision to sell her to a childless couple in Kabul, an event that ties the various narratives together.

It was wonderful to have Santa come by and visit us this week and meet so many children from our community. Happy holidays to everyone!

We had another fascinating book club. This month we read and discussed "M Train" by Patti Smith. 
​
M Train is Smith's second memoir, following the 2010 National Book Award-winning Just Kids. While Just Kids recounts Smith's early life, the beginning of her career and particularly her relationship with artist Robert Mapplethorpe, M Train focuses on a later portion of her life, the period since the release of her debut album Horses in 1975. The memoir particularly recounts the personal losses that marked the forty-year span between Horses and M Train, including the deaths of Mapplethorpe in 1989, of AIDS; Smith's husband, guitarist Fred "Sonic" Smith, in 1994 at 45, of heart failure; and Smith's brother Todd a month later, of a stroke.

Hope to see you next month.

Clothing Drive was a huge success! Thank you to our volunteers Lisa, Jessyka and her daughter, and Gary. Thank you to all who donated. These clothes are getting redirected to a shelter on E. 185th St in The Bronx. Shoutout to Kari Munoz who wheeled over over 30 coats from The Hebrew Institute of Riverdale.