Hi, friends:
When I was still in college, I worked for a summer at the The Lower East Side Tenement Museum in New York City. Maybe you’ve been there, too: Part of the museum is housed in a tenement building located at 97 Orchard Street that was home to immigrant families dating back to the 19th century. In addition to its tenement tours bringing visitors into the restored apartments of various residents — including the 1878 home of one German-Jewish family — the museum offers walking tours of the neighborhood, showing how daily life has both changed and stayed the same. It’s history come to life, and it’s fascinating.
I thought of the Tenement Museum while reading about the new exhibit at Historic Northampton, “Single Room Occupancy: Portraits & Stories of Northampton Lodging, 1976-2016,” curated by Cassandra Holden featuring portraits by photographer Paul Shoul. The exhibition features 20 photographs of residents, staff, and the building itself, as well as oral histories and a recreation of a resident’s room. Northampton Lodging, formerly at 129 Pleasant Street, closed in 2016, but Holden and Shoul have managed to capture what it looked like, sounded like, and felt like to live and work inside the building, which housed a tight-knit community.
As Historic Northampton says on its website, “The stories of camaraderie and mutual support stand in stark contrast to some of those seen in the police blotter.” Go experience this piece of living history for yourself. The exhibit runs through June 10, and over the course of the exhibit, Historic Northampton will host programs examining the availability and affordability of transitional and temporary housing in the city.
Historic Northampton is located at 46 Bridge Street, in Northampton. There is no admission fee, though donations are welcome. You can check out historicnorthampton.org for more information, including visiting hours, and read Steve Pfarrer’s piece, “Single Rooms, Singular Stories,” on page 12, for the story behind collecting these stories.
And now for something completely different, but still Northampton-centric: Noho native and UMass Amherst student Chris Gonzalez has written a one-act play, “Paradise City,” which he describes as his love letter to his hometown. He’s our “Art Maker” for this week.
And finally, local singer/songwriters Thane Thomsen (The Figments, Goldwater) and Henning Ohlenbusch (Humbert, School for the Dead, Gentle Hen) are leading a free songwriting workshop at the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Museum on the second floor of Forbes Library in Northampton this coming Wednesday at 7 p.m.
“Tuned In” columnist Ken Maiuri will tell you more about the event, and the library’s Musicians in Residence series, on page 4.
Have a great weekend.
Brooke Hauser