NJLM - Show Off Your City 2021 Photo Contest Open!
2021 Show Off Your City judging day is February 15. Please send in your photos of how local residents and officials worked and played and thrived in these pandemic days. Entries will be posted on the League’s Facebook page, website and some will be featured in the April issue of NJ Municipalities magazine, and possibly other issues. A winner will be selected and receives a free League publication of their choice.
38 Poems by Black Authors Installed in Maplewood to Celebrate Black Lives Matter Movement
The poems are part of Maplewood’s Black Lives Matter Poetry Project—a rich assemblage of poems by American Black poets that are currently being installed throughout Maplewood’s shared spaces. In our business districts and pedestrian thoroughfares as well as parks, 38 poems printed on large banners will live among us during the coming months. As part of our public landscape, these poems are meant as points of reflection, to help us consider what it means to be free in the face of oppression. Poems by Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni, Ross Gay, Audre Lorde, Lucille Clifton, Jericho Brown, Rita Dove, Tracy K. Smith, Elizabeth Alexander, Amanda Gorman, and other internationally acclaimed writers will hang next to the work of 13 vastly talented local poets, including teachers and students.
Holiday Virtual Events - "Missing 'The Nutcracker'? How to Get Your Holiday Fix at Home
By The New York Times
Many seasonal mainstays have been reimagined for online viewing this year. Here are some of our favorites, from “A Christmas Carol” to Handel’s “Messiah.”
We all have our holiday traditions. Maybe yours is seeing the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall and gazing at the Rockefeller Center tree, all done up in lights. Well, this year “The Christmas Spectacular” is canceled, and that Norway spruce is just sorry looking (though organizers swear the tree will be beautiful by the time of its lighting on Dec. 2).
Still, many rituals endure this season, repurposed for online viewing. Below is a selection of offerings — some beloved mainstays, a few cheeky upstarts — which you can indulge in watching from home.
Maplewood to Host Walk-Through Holiday Tree Lighting Experience at Springfield Ave. Gazebo, Dec. 13
With this December being one we will surely remember, the Maplewood Community Services Department is bringing a unique, walk-through holiday experience to the Springfield Avenue Gazebo on Sunday, December 13th from 1pm to 3pm. “During the pandemic, we can’t gather together as we usually would to light our Springfield Avenue tree, but we have been working hard planning an outdoor event to bring some joy and cheer in the safest way possible. The biggest relief during these quarantine times has been seeing our masked program participants and their smiling eyes!” said Melissa Mancuso, Director of Community Services for Maplewood
Seven SOMA Seniors Receive Awards in Essex County Juried Art Show
Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr. congratulated 33 Essex County artists who received awards in the 2020 Essex County Senior Citizens Juried Art Show. Seven were from Maplewood or South Orange. This year’s contest was conducted virtually because of coronavirus.
Instead 5K Register Now for Achieve’s INstead 5K Race Sept 25-27
For 17 years, the Newstead 5K race has kicked off the new school year in South Orange-Maplewood, attracting hundreds of enthusiastic runners and walkers for a morning of healthy activity,
New Fund Launched to Help New Jersey’s Arts and Culture Industry Survive COVID-19
A coalition of funders has established the New Jersey Arts and Culture Recovery Fund (NJACRF) to help ensure the survival of the state’s cultural sector that has faced economic devastation from the COVID-19 pandemic.
New Arts & Culture Director Ready for Coronavirus Challenges in Maplewood
Some employees had to learn to pivot when the coronavirus pandemic rolled in. Ana De Archuleta knew what she was getting into when she was hired at the end of April to be the new Director of the Division of Arts & Culture for Maplewood.She said she understood the challenge, “to try to continue the way the division had been working, which is a lot of events. I mean, this office books around 10 events a week on a regular season.”
Village Green Spotlights award-winning director/producer Cara Martes
Village Green presents a series called Spotlight, which gives you a chance to get to know your neighbors better. We ask questions. Our Spotlight personality does the rest.