By E. Ashley Rooney

 

Lexington Historical Society (LHS)  is pleased to announce  that Carol S. Ward will be the new Executive Director beginning September 7. Previously, Carol was the Director of One River School of Art and Design in Larchmont, New York, where she oversaw business, education, and administration oversight for the for-profit art school and contemporary art gallery.

For the previous ten years, she served as Executive Director of the Morris-Jumel Mansion, an historic house museum and arts education center in Washington Heights, New York City. Her experience spanned a wide variety of departments including programming, education, curatorial, marketing, development, fundraising and board relations. Under her leadership she increased the operating budget significantly and led the Mansion to record attendance.

Here in Lexington, she will provide strategic thinking and hands-on management for a vibrant organization serving the local community and visitors from around the world. LHS manages and interprets to the public three historic house museums with significant connections to the Battle of Lexington, provides stewardship of important collections and archives spanning three centuries of Lexington history, and provides year-round programming to the community at its Lexington Center headquarters and program center, its historic houses, as well as on a virtual platform.

Carol comes to LHS with nearly 20 years of experience. She has focused on connecting organizations with their community, increasing fundraising and earned income opportunities, and developing “outside the box” programs and events to make historic sites more contemporary and relevant. She intends to use all these skills at LHS and already has some ideas percolating in her head about ways to connect contemporary art to the historic mission of the organization. She also wants to establish a stronger relationship between the downtown area of Lexington and LHS, creating ways to activate the Depot and the outdoor spaces of all the properties.

When asked about her vision for LHS over the next five years, Carol replied, “LHS is an amazing organization that has an exciting institutional history and so many great things going on now. My goal is to take the organization to the next level using my background in strategic planning, marketing, operations and programming. LHS should showcase the dynamic history of Lexington for the diverse communities that surround it. Honoring the mission and history is of utmost importance to me, and then developing innovative new things to expand the offerings to assist in fundraising efforts and to diversify how people see and perceive LHS. The story of Lexington needs to be told and shared with as many people as possible!”

People skills are essential to success in an organization that depends on the coordination of staff and volunteers. In all of her  previous positions, Carol has led a staff (from commissioned sales people to arts educators) and also had a dedicated volunteer corps to help lead tours, work on events, interface with the community, and achieve  fundraising goals. She is experienced in building strong relationships with current and prospective donors and  fostering productive partnerships with other entities.

LHS President Barry Cunha noted that “…during our talks with Carol, she stood out immediately as someone who combines many strengths derived from her experiences in both the non-profit and business worlds, as well as in both historic houses and contemporary art. We are confident she will bring LHS to a new level and excited to work with her.”

 

By Cindy Atoji Keene

 

Of course, there’s a dog named Kennedy in Lexington. And pups named Fenway, Boston, Fig Newton, and Sox. There must also be many owners who like food, as other dog names in town include Hashbrown, Cucumber, Tofu, Creampuff, Maple Sugar, Marzipan, Noodles, Clementine, Juice, and 14 dogs named Cookie.

Perhaps the longest dog name we saw on the town clerk’s list was Maximillian Sir Pugs A Lot (imagine calling that in a dog park). And the most popular dog’s name in Lexington? Looks like it might be the 40 or so dogs named Charlie.

Abbey to Zuzu, the 2114 dogs licensed in Lexington last year are not our whole lives, but they make our lives whole, as the quote goes. “Dogs are one of our purest loving relationships; they are just so eager to connect and love and please. We share a very particular intimacy with dogs,” said psychologist Amy Briggs Bledsoe who shares her Frost Road home with her family and dog Maisy, part Jack Russell Terrier, dachshund, mini pinscher, and a mix of other breeds.

It was Bledsoe who got the idea to form a Facebook group just for dog owners during the height of the pandemic. She had moved to Lexington and found it a very dog-friendly town, but there was no dedicated social media site for the community of dog owners. If a dog was lost, or neighbors had questions about vets, leashes, or dog food, they had to ask on other town forums.

So she started chatting with fellow dog owner Cindy Savage about forming a Facebook group simply called Lexington Dog Owners Group. The group now has over 800 members in less than three months and is a resource for everything from dog adoption, pet food recalls, free crates, groomers, coyote sightings, flea collars, dog ophthalmologists, and much more. What to do about a carsick dog? Or a sheepadoodle who gets the zoomies, or a lost dog?

The Lexington Dog Owners Group especially coalesced around a dog named Zane, who escaped from his owner in February. Zane had just been brought up to Lexington by a Texas rescue organization and was in the process of being adopted when he got spooked and ran into the woods. For almost a week, Zane was spotted running around Lower Vinebrook and attempts to lure him were in vain. Missing Dogs of Massachusetts, a non-profit organization that works to locate missing dogs, got involved and some volunteers even went door to door with flyers, asking others to help find the dog. Zane’s story stirred people who were worried about the dog shivering in the winter cold with no shelter. Savage, who was actively involved in Zane’s rescue, said she even had strangers coming up to her in the grocery store, asking, “What’s going on with Zane? Is he okay?”

The capture of Zane was almost made for the movies; it was so serendipitous. There were many Zane sightings, and then amazingly, Zane approached a woman walking her dog Rudy in Lower Vinebrook. She knew it was Zane but didn’t have a collar, but her husband happened to look down, and amazingly, someone had left a collar and leash right there on the ground. Zane was captured and adopted by another family, and the Zane saga ended. And yet, it didn’t because the whole episode brought the Lexington Dog Owners Group Facebook group even closer together.

But there’s another angle to this story, one that ties Lexington to southern states like Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, as well as Caribbean countries like Aruba and even overseas in places like Qatar. These are all locations where homeless dogs are rescued, transported to the U.S., and then adopted by families, including here in Lexington. Savage, for one, had never known the joys of owning a dog until she adopted one from a shelter; then, completely enamored, she began looking for ways to help abandoned dogs in other countries. When she and her family traveled to Aruba for vacation a few years ago, they brought home four puppies in carry-ons, who all found new homes in the area. There are also dogs in town who might have formally been street dogs in places like Turkey, Puerto Rico, Azerbaijan, Serbia, Saudi Arabia, and more. In most developing nations, only about 5 percent of dogs have owners in the Western sense, compared to 95 percent in the U.S., according to reports from the Humane Society of America. The rest are strays who rely on handouts, or ferals who feed at landfills, vacant lots, or slaughterhouse waste piles. Potcake dogs from the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos, for example, are a familiar sight in Lexington; a name given because locals feed the caked remains of a cooking pot to the dogs. The dogs typically look like a mix of hound, mastiff, spaniel, terrier, or retriever and are typically smart, loyal, and loving.

In Lexington, as across the country, there was a pandemic puppy boom during the pandemic. COVID-19 lockdowns spurred a scramble to secure canine companionship to fill the void. The Lexington Dog Owners Facebook group reflected the boom in dog ownership. Many new puppy parents posted questions and photos, including pictures of dogs napping during Zoom calls. One overwhelmed dog owner wrote, “Anyone else out there totally love their new fur baby, but also overwhelmed by the demands of their new puppy?!” She wanted to commiserate with other pet parents, but did she have regrets? Absolutely none.

For Bledsoe, whose clinical psychology practice in Cambridge has been booming during these ruff (pun intended) times, it has been a relief to be able to come home to her four-legged friend. “The pandemic has been so painful and isolating, and to be able to come together around the love of dogs and share with others who have that passion has been extra special during this time which is otherwise so dark,” she said.

No doubt the dog community in Lexington will continue to grow, and maybe even someday, the town will get a dog park. In the meantime, according to the list of names maintained by the town clerk, there is even a dog in town named Lexington. But dog owners, take note: there’s no dog named Massachusetts! Maybe it’s time to name your new pup after our beloved Bay State.

Thelma Goldberg loves the math and the magic of tap.

By Cindy Atoji Keene

A dancer who is an academic might seem like an oxymoron. But that’s only if you haven’t met Thelma Larkin Goldberg, Ph.D., who just received her doctor of philosophy from Lesley University last March. The accomplished tap dancer was defending her dissertation just as the pandemic hit, and while others were cleaning out their offices and rushing to go home, she conferred with her advisor in the barren building. As the state and city shut down, Goldberg never was able to attend a cap and gown ceremony nor the symbolic hooding, but her advanced degree affirmed what everyone who is acquainted with this tousled hair spunky blonde realizes: Goldberg knows her stuff.

Goldberg’s dance studio, the Dance Inn, is a fixture in Lexington, located on the bottom level of the Monroe Center for the Arts on Massachusetts Avenue. With 400-500 students a year, tens of thousands of dancers have waltzed through the Dance Inn classes for over four decades, learning tap, jazz and ballet, hip hop, and adaptive dancing.

But despite her dance business and its numerous productions – recitals, performances, parades, competitions – Goldberg is at heart a tap dancer. Tap dance, rather than just a style of dance, has a complex history with an African American narrative intertwined through its rich origins. While tap dancing today seems to be a lost art featured only in old, grainy black and white movies like Singing in the Rain, Goldberg has centered her life and career around using her body and feet for percussion.

Goldberg would be the first to admit that she doesn’t have a typical petite and diminutive dancer’s body. “I was never raised to see dance as a career,” she said, standing in the living room of her Ledgelawn house. She doesn’t have tap shoes on but demonstrates shuffles and ball changes, brushing lightly against the hardwood floor. “Teachers encouraged me to be excellent in dancing but said, ‘you have to go to college and pursue other things.’” She danced and taught while she earned her degree and was an educator in Boston. But she wanted to take a break, and her husband, Stephen “Goldie” Goldberg, an accountant, agreed that they could open their home, then a small Cape on Hill Street, to students. They moved all the furniture out of their front room, and while the young dancers sang, “I’m a little teapot, short and stout,” Goldie’s tax clients laughed in his adjacent office.

Thus Dance Inn was born, a blur of students, teachers, and recitals. Lexington, said Goldberg, was a perfect place for her studio because the town is clearly dedicated to arts and education. Lexington, as well, is a community of intellectuals and Goldberg’s cerebral approach to dance fits right in. “In order for tap dance to become more relevant in today’s dance world, teaching training programs should be designed to include ‘how’ and why’ to teach tap history and music theory,” she said. Goldberg considers tap-dancing very mathematical, with order and pattern sequences. “I love thinking about rhythm, breaking it down into quarter notes, 16th notes, triplets. Am I swinging or standing? How long can I hold a silence? How many notes fit in a phrase and stay with the choreography or movement I’m trying to express?” Goldberg, who has written two instructional books about tap education, also has an active social media presence, with a YouTube tap dance channel and tap notes blog, and more.

Perhaps the most significant measure of a dance studio’s success is its impact on its students. Countless numbers of Dance Inn trainees have gone onto have their lives changed by dancing. Goldberg’s own children, Sebastian and Robin, are professional dancers. Ryan Casey, a Spanish teacher at Lexington High School, began at the Dance Inn when he was five and went on to become a choreographer, dance journalist, and nationally recognized dancer. “Goldberg puts tap at the forefront of her school, whereas most schools do that with ballet. Putting rhythm-based dancing in the lead is very unconventional,” said Casey.

Goldberg is 68 now, and as tap dancing can be demanding on the back, knees, and feet, she has suffered her share of injuries. Her beloved husband Goldie passed away three years ago from cancer, and she often cries as she dances alone in her living room to songs like Better than Anything by Natalie Cole and Diana Krall. The pandemic has hit the Dance Inn, making it impossible to hold student’s hands while she’s teaching them steps and forcing her to purchase microphones so students can hear instructors through their masks. Portable tap dance floors make it possible to have classes outside, and Zoom sessions have become indispensable.

But does Goldberg have any plans to retire? Absolutely not. Her dance adventures are only just beginning, she says. “I still have too much to do.” Her father, an avid ballroom dancer, didn’t stop dancing till he was 92, and she plans to follow in his footsteps and beyond.

She walks over to her brightly painted stand-up desk, customized for her. Her library – books on tap dancing America; tap dance dictionary; steppin’ blues; vaudeville and jazz bands – perch nearby. Goldberg sees tap dance as having a renaissance lately, with developments and improvisation; she’s having conversations with other experts about the assimilation of tap dance and its musical history, as well as teaching and philosophy. “The integration of music with movement can be an academic experience,” she says. Dancer academian? Hardly an oxymoron when it comes to Goldberg!

 

 

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Why LEF is a critical part of school success in Lexington, and how you can help.

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In partnership with Lexington Public Schools, the Lexington Education Foundation provides grant opportunities to encourage innovation and inspire joy in teaching and life-long learning.LEF invites all community members to participate in its mission.

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By Kim Siebert MacPhail

After the schools closed down last spring, Amy Ryan joined the board of the Lexington Education Foundation (LEF) as Communications VP. A mother of four— with children at Estabrook Elementary, Diamond Middle School, and Lexington High—Ryan works full-time in public relations. Like many modern families, especially those raising multiple children, the Ryan household has a lot of moving parts. Pre-Covid, she and her husband were happy to donate money to LEF every year and drop off the occasional tray of bagels for an event.

But then, as Ryan explained, Covid changed everything.

“I started to attend virtual School Committee meetings and to see the struggles teachers were dealing with,” she recalled. “With four kids in school, I realized I could use my skill set to spread the good word about LEF. For me, the most meaningful thing to do was join this board, work with teachers directly, and work with the grants that really make positive impact.”

Ryan said she has quickly come to realize how this investment of her time and expertise contribute to feelings of connection to the schools and the town. “It’s a sense of community. For someone who has kids in multiple schools across the spectrum [from elementary to high school], it helped me feel better connected to all the schools at the same time, rather than spend a few hours in each one, here and there.

“The LEF board is also a bunch of really smart, sophisticated people,” Ryan continued. “Even though it’s virtual right now, they help me ‘up my game.’ I love the interaction, and I think we help each other to be better and stronger. We all kind of need that these days.”

LEF Co-President Raquel Leder agrees that being connected to the whole school district is a major benefit of involvement in the Lexington Education Foundation. Leder’s main focus as a board member is grant administration, which she finds both exciting and fulfilling, but the rewards of learning about what lies ahead for her three children have been invaluable as they transition through the grades.

“It can seem scary and daunting and you’re wondering how your kids will handle it,” Leder said. “The people involved with LEF help you understand what’s happening at the next level before your kids get there— which is exciting and cool and supportive.”

Co-President Patrice Cleaves, also a mother of three, became involved with LEF because she wanted to use her marketing skills and because she sees LEF as a way to “spread your wings” to help the entire school community. “I purposely didn’t join the PTO at Estabrook School because I found my skill set better suited to serving the district-at-large,” Cleaves said. “It’s been really great to be a part of LEF because you connect with the kids, you talk to teachers. you see and hear the emotions in their voices when they talk about the grants.”

One of the ways LEF connects directly with students is through the organization’s Student Ambassadors program, whose participants can attend board meetings and review grant applications submitted by teachers, administrators, and staff. Cleaves expressed deep appreciation for the students that participate in the Ambassador program: “[They] are the most well-spoken, smart group of kids. I’m always in awe of them. Their questions are really eloquent. They are a credit to the Lexington Public Schools.”

SOME BACKGROUND ON LEF

As expressed on its website, the Lexington Education Foundation “is a community-based nonprofit, volunteer-run organization that raises financial support from families and businesses in Lexington to fund exceptional educational activities that address the Lexington Public Schools’ priorities but fall outside the scope of the LPS budget…. Since 1989, LEF has awarded more than $5 million for activities designed to enrich the learning experience and strengthen the achievement of every student in every Lexington public school.”

LEF’s stated mission is: “To bring the community together to build and sustain the excellence of Lexington public schools. To support exceptional educational activities in all Lexington Public Schools. To bring innovative instruction and new technologies into Lexington’s classrooms. To support faculty’s professional learning. To help our schools build strong, student-centered learning communities that inspire and engage every student to reach their greatest potential.” Co-President Leder puts it this way: “At the center— and why I love LEF— are the grants. They help our students by helping our teachers, administrators, and staff. Everything we do builds around the grants so it was only natural— when Covid came in— to find a way to help through grant-giving.”

RISING TO THE CHALLENGES OF A CHANGED EDUCATIONAL LANDSCAPE, PART ONE

Pre-Covid, LEF awarded $250,000 in grants each year in three different categories:

• School Community Grants which provide equal dollar amounts to each school for principals to use at their discretion for innovation and creativity initiatives;
• Fellowship Grants which provide access to funds for professional development/learning;
• Program Grants that a group of teachers can apply for to develop or expand programming.

LEF’s ability to fund grants is derived from a number of sources: direct donations from parents and other community members; appreciation recognitions called STAR Awards; corporate and small business sponsorships; Trivia Bee, Celebration for Education, and other events.

Once Covid caused the schools to close down—and not incidentally sidelined LEFs revenue-producing events—the Board realized it needed to evaluate the district’s needs, and LEF’s ability to meet them, in a changed landscape. Leder explained it was at this juncture that LEF re-committed its pledge to award $250,000 in 2020-21, no matter what the year brought.

The first order of business, then, was to create a new Covid Response grant category which has a rapid approval turnaround of two weeks, rather than the usual, far longer grant cycle.

To this initiative, LEF dedicated $100,000 of the $250,000. So far, about half of the $100,000 has been awarded. Examples of grants given include two from the elementary schools that are math-related and intended to support early learners as they acquire essential foundational skills via off-screen activities, such as math puzzles and tactile manipulatives.

Another grant— awarded to a Diamond School Science teacher— enables students to “travel” to Europa, one of the moons of the planet Jupiter. In this activity, students focus on teamwork, problem-solving, communication, and decision making: skills that directly connect to Science curriculum standards for the grade level.

RISING TO THE CHALLENGES OF A CHANGED EDUCATIONAL LANDSCAPE, PART TWO

LEF’s second Covid-related effort started this past December/January. It piggy-backs on the saliva surveillance pool-testing initiative originally spearheaded by the Wellesley Education Foundation for the Wellesley Public Schools.

According to an interview with Superintendent of Schools Dr. Julie Hackett, published in the January/February Colonial Times Magazine, the saliva testing pool model makes it possible to offer screening to a greater number of people at a fraction of the cost of individualized testing. Lexington’s program is voluntary and tests are self-administered. This program focuses solely on middle school and high school students and has been extended past the original 8-weeks, due not only to the arrival of new virus strains but also to the success of identifying several asymptomatic cases, which allowed the Schools to quickly isolate affected individuals and avoid community spread.

An elementary school program will begin in early March so that kindergarten through second-grade students may return to in-person learning during the month of April.

For Lexington, the cost of the original saliva-testing program for the middle and high school populations is $229,000. LEF is partnering with the district to help defray the expense; to that end, LEF has established a fundraising campaign separate from either its regular grant program or the Covid Response grant program.

Of the $229,000, LEF has raised $55,000. Superintendent Hackett, reported in the CTM interview that the district has also filed paperwork to take advantage of funding offered through Governor Baker’s new nasal swabbing program, although the outcome of that request is unknown at this time.

Whatever the final cost is, the LEF board members say that the organization stands ready to help as much as possible because, as Co-President Cleaves said, surveillance testing provides protection and comfort for teachers, parents, and students.

DONATE, PARTICIPATE

The Lexington Education Foundation website provides more information on LEFs various programs, how to become active in the organization, and how to donate to any/all its initiatives, including the STAR, CONSTELLATION, and GALAXY appreciation awards. A recipient of these appreciation awards can be anyone in the community who merits recognition— not only teachers, staff, administrators but also business owners and employees, Town Government volunteers and staff, medical workers, child care providers, etc.

Leder, Cleaves, and Ryan want to extend a warm welcome to anyone who wants to help with LEF’s efforts. There is always a need, they say. Roles and tasks of all kinds on LEF’s board and committees are designed to suit all levels of interest or availability. Specific areas include event support, school liaisons, fundraising, communications, social media, partnerships, advisory, resource development.

Leder also noted that LEF has engaged in deeper thinking about the organization this year: what it wants to do and what it wants to be going forward. “If someone cares passionately about their children’s education and they want to help the community, LEF is a great place to be,” Leder said. “A lot of people are feeling the pain of what we’ve been going through. Voicing disappointment does nothing. If you channel that energy and desire for things to get better, there’s hope. “We really want to reach out more and have LEF look more like what Lexington looks like as a community,” she continued. “We want to bring more diversity into the organization. We have so many opportunities, at all levels, from a few hours to a bigger commitment. All skills are welcome. Everyone belongs here.”

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www.lexedfoundation.org

Everyone is welcome!

 

 

 

By Jane Whitehead

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For musicians worldwide, the outlook changed brutally in March 2020 as COVID-19 shuttered venues, cancelled gigs, and raised a gigantic question mark over the future of live music. We heard from three professional musicians with strong Lexington ties how they rode out a rollercoaster year, and what it takes to hold on to their artistic vision and find inspiration at a time of radical uncertainty.

Noah y Maurizio Wins Iguana Music Fund Grant

In December 2020, the Boston-based string band Noah y Maurizio was among 24 New England-based musical groups to be awarded an Iguana Music Fund grant by Passim in Cambridge. For band co-founder Noah Harrington, a jazz bassist, composer and arranger, the $2000 grant was a welcome boost at the end of a challenging year.

In a recent conversation, Harrington, a 2015 Lexington High School (LHS) graduate and prize-winning alum of the LHS Jazz Combo, described the joy and frustration of melding an international group of youthful virtuoso string players into something like a musical family, only to have everyone “scattered to the cosmic winds” from Minnesota to Brazil by the global pandemic.
Noah y Maurizio evolved out of friendships and musical collaborations Harrington formed at Berklee College of Music, and at the prestigious Acoustic Music Seminar at the Savannah Music Festival. Maurizio is Maurizio Fiore Salas, a guitarist and Venezuelan cuatro player, composer and arranger. (The cuatro is a Venezuelan folk stringed instrument in the guitar family.)

Harrington and Fiore Salas met while studying jazz composition at Berklee and exploring their shared interest in mixing traditional and contemporary music of North and South America. At the Acoustic Music Seminar in 2018, Harrington was enthralled by the musicianship of cellist Parker Ousely and Canadian fiddler Clara Rose.

Rose’s visit to Boston in February 2019 was the catalyst for a week of intense rehearsal with Harrington, Fiore Salas and Ousely, together with prize-winning mandolinist Ethan Setiawan and Brazilian guitarist João Perrusi. “In a little under a week the group was born,” said Harrington. “The chemistry just felt so good when we started playing together.”

Following a bunch of successful gigs, the group recorded an entire album of new material, released with the title Acoustic Travelogue in March 2020, and praised by cellist Mike Block as “an inspiring display of brilliant solo and ensemble playing, as well as beautiful tune writing and arranging.”

Recreating that chemistry to create a second album is Harrington’s priority. He’s currently raising funds to add to the Iguana Fund grant, to cover the costs of bringing the group together again for a week of intensive recording in May at a studio in the Maine woods, with appropriate COVID-testing and quarantining measures. (Since Rose’s return to Canada the crucial fiddler’s role has been filled by bluegrass virtuoso Sofia Chiarandini, he noted.)

The concept for the album is for “a composer/performers’ collective” with everyone contributing compositions. Harrington is prepared to back the project with his life savings if necessary. “I really believe in the vision of what we’re doing,” he said. “I believe in the players and I believe we can make art that is meaningful and that can help a lot of people in this time.”

Lorelei Marcell – Solo Singer-Songwriter, Heading West

“I’ve been singing for as long as I can remember,” said pop singer-songwriter Lorelei Marcell, 18, a Lexington High School senior with a serious online fan-base (52,000 followers on Instagram, over 500,000 streams on Spotify), and a professional management team based in Los Angeles, where she hopes to build the next stage of her career.

That ambition is no pipedream. Marcell has worked with professional managers since she turned 16. Her collaborations and friendships with established musicians and producers have resulted in a half-dozen professionally produced music videos released on YouTube.

Her first release of 2020 was “Dreamin About You,” described on the music review website neonmusic.co.uk as “a catchy pop anthem steeped in nostalgia” with “polished confident vocals” from Marcell, who co-wrote the song with Valerie Broussard, Stefan Litrownik, and her song-writing friend and producer Shannon McArthur.

As COVID struck in March, Marcell admits that her usual optimism was dented. “That was like an ‘oh gosh, what am I going to do?’ moment,” she said, “because no artist has ever experienced this before, especially when they’re up and coming and trying to get their name out there.”

She decided to amp-up her social media presence, live-streaming several gigs over the summer and going ahead with the August release of her latest single “Eyes Closed,” co-written with British-born Grammy-nominated songwriter-singer and producer James Abrahart (JHart), who has written for Justin Bieber, Keith Urban, and Usher. That connection came through Shannon McArthur, who was once Abrahart’s roommate, noted Marcell.

Although Marcell has reached her largest audience online, she has always enjoyed live performance. From age 10, she’s sung at open mics, performed at local Lexington benefits, and entertained diners in restaurants from Boston to Concord. One thing that COVID has taken away, she said, is the biggest thrill of singing live: “that intimate connection with people you don’t know, people you’ll probably never meet again.”

The pandemic did however give Marcell and her friend and frequent accompanist David Moore a unique live gig experience. Thanks to a contact of Moore’s, they were invited to perform for patients and frontline health care workers at the Boston Hope Hospital, a temporary field hospital set up at the Boston Convention Center in mid-April to care for COVID-19 positive homeless adults, in a line-up that included Alicia Keys and Yo-Yo Ma.

Marcell credits the choral program at Lexington High School with supporting her development as a well-rounded performer. Although “it’s very different from what I do in my own career,” she said, singing with the school’s renowned chamber chorus, Lexington High School Madrigal Singers, affectionately known as “Mads,” has opened up “a whole new world of musicianship.”

After finishing high school in May, Marcell plans to move to LA in September to pursue her solo career full-time “in the hub of everything.” The prospect of moving to a new city is both scary and exciting, she said, especially with the wild card of COVID thrown in. But pandemic or no, her goal is clear: “I want to have as many people as possible listen to my music and hear what I have to say. There’s a lot that comes with that, but I’m so ready for the challenge,” she said.

Music of Hope and Defiance – Lizzy and The Triggermen

With a growing reputation as one of the hottest swing bands in Los Angeles, noted in Elmore Magazine for the “powerhouse vocals and femme fatale swagger” of its leader, singer-songwriter Lizzy Shapiro, the ten-piece band Lizzy and the Triggermen anticipated a banner year in 2020.

Shapiro’s team of seasoned jazz musicians includes virtuoso trombonist/arranger Dan Barrett, who collaborated with Benny Goodman, and over the last two years, the band’s packed live dance shows at storied LA venues including the Wiltern, the El Rey and the Troubadour have gained rave reviews and a devoted following.

“We had our biggest year yet scheduled by February 2020,” said Shapiro, speaking by phone from her home in Los Angeles. Back then, the band was prepping for the annual South by Southwest festival held every March in Austin, Texas, and for a cluster of gigs around the launch of their first album, Good Songs for Bad Times, including a New York City debut at The Cutting Room.

On March 6, 2020, Shapiro was driving to San Francisco with the band’s instruments and bandstands for a big show at City Hall, when her phone lit up with texts announcing the cancellation of everything. “By the end of that week it was pretty clear we were not going to do any of the things we were planning on doing for the year,” she said.

After initially deciding to hold back the release of the album – written and recorded pre-pandemic – Shapiro was struck by how eerily prescient one track now sounded. Her composition “Dance Song (For the End of the World)” starts with a foot-tapping beat under a British male voice sampled from an archival BBC Radio World War II broadcast announcing: “All gatherings for purposes of entertainment and amusement are prohibited until further notice.”

The parallel was too striking to ignore, said Shapiro. So she and the band decided to release the album in May 2020 and produced a music video to go with it. They reached out to artists in 15 countries, from Argentina to Vietnam, with one instruction: “Film yourself dancing at home.” The resulting music video went viral, and Good Songs for Bad Times reached #3 on the iTunes Top 40 US Jazz Albums chart.

“I don’t know that that song would have resonated with so many people if we’d released it at any other time,” said Shapiro, who grew up in Lexington and whose early mentors included inspirational drama and music teachers Steve Bogart and Brian McConnell at LHS. She studied music and comedy at Yale, and trained as an opera singer before moving to the West Coast in 2005 where she made a name as a comedy writer, producer and actor, creating and starring in an Emmy-nominated TV show for the History Channel, The Crossroads of History, 2016.

That background in film and TV now enables Shapiro and the band to bring Hollywood production values to virtual events from live-streaming gigs to corporate and private parties worldwide. “That’s a space I’m really excited about,” said Shapiro.

Shapiro finds hope in the Depression-era music from which the band takes its inspiration. “There’s a kind of defiance and hope that emerged from the music in response to what was happening in society,” she said. Uncertain as the future of live performance is at present, she sees another cause for optimism in the longing for human connection awoken by the pandemic.

“It’s easy to take something for granted when there’s no fear of it going away,” she said, so “when it’s safe to gather again and do live shows, there’s a hope that people will be really hungry for that in a way they weren’t before.” And surely that’s a hope shared by performers of all stripes, all over the world.

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To learn more and hear their music, follow these performers online:

NOAH y MAURIZO
noahymaurizio.com
instagram.com/noahharringtonbass
facebook.com/NoahHarringtonMusic
LORELEI MARCELL
Instagram: @loreleimarcell
Spotify/Apple Music etc: Lorelei Marcell
LIZZY AND THE TRIGGERMEN
Lizzyandthetriggermen.com
Instagram: @lizzyandthetriggermen

The LexSeeHer Steering Committee has enthusiastically taken up the charge to expand Lexington’s collective memory to include the many women whose hearts and minds have enriched the community for centuries.

LexSeeHer has several projects in the works, including a street banner project spearheaded by Girl Scout Troop 66265, a free Speaker Series, and the establishment of a new monument to celebrate Lexington women.

Co-Chair Betty Gau shares, “We have been studying monuments across the state and country, and learning from guest speakers like Kathy Jacob, who has researched and written about significant monuments.” Ms. Gau shares a favorite quote from Ms. Jacob, who says that public monuments: “… weave an intricate web of remembrance in which certain threads are highlighted, or validated, while others are dropped and disappear.”

“Women belong in our shared built environment,” adds co-chair Jesse Steigerwald. She continues, “Today, you could walk through the center and not necessarily find any permanent evidence that women have played an important role here for more than 300 years, socially, economically, and politically. Even in the 1700s, women helped organize; Anna Harrington, a Lexington woman, hosted a large Spinning Match that was organized as a protest against the King’s tax scheme. We would like to make sure that residents and visitors understand the important roles played by women.”

Ms. Gau continues, “The more we learn, the more excited we are to help make sure these stories are easily discovered, whether people are interested in Lexington’s critical role in the American Revolution, or want to know how women have contributed to the abolition movement, women’s suffrage, literature, and discoveries!”
Martha Wood, Steering Committee member, recalls the group’s launch on March 8, 2020. Wood says, “We timed our first event with the official opening of the Lexington Historical Society’s Something Must Be Done: Bold Women of Lexington exhibit, which took place on International Women’s Day. A team of Girl Scouts from Troop 66265 helped collect the very first pledges. We were deeply inspired by the many Lexington women included in the exhibit at Buckman Tavern.”
Amber Iqbal, another Steering Committee member, shares that it was very exciting to be able to see the Something Must Be Done exhibit, “The Historical Society’s presentation of inspirational women leaders from the era of the 1700s to the present is an essential effort. We, as women, have a responsibility to convey the knowledge of these bold and strong women to the next generation.” Ms. Iqbal is now helping make women even more visible with limited edition LexSeeHer mugs.

SUFFRAGISTS SEEN IN THE CENTER

As you walk through the center today, aspects of the Bold Women Exhibit have been installed in the windows at CVS to celebrate the role that Lexington women played in the U.S. suffrage movement. A timeline offers viewers the chance to see where local events and national events intersected in the long road to the 19th Amendment.

There are many women involved in this movement from Lexington whose names aren’t yet well known. The Wellington family submitted petitions to the state of Massachusetts asking for the women’s right to vote as early as 1850. Eliza Wellington made a Lexington suffrage banner in 1887 that declares “Something Must Be Done.” This banner was carried by Vera Perin Lane when she and (at least) two other Lexington women traveled to Washington, D.C. to take part in the Women’s Suffrage Pageant in March of 1913. Florence Livingston wrote the lyrics for a suffrage song that was performed at the 1914 Boston Suffrage Parade.

The CVS window exhibit was a collaboration between the Historical Society and LexSeeHer, and include a reproduction of the photograph from the Schlesinger Library archive that depicts Massachusetts suffragist delegates to the 1913 Pageant, along with a photograph from the 2020 reenactment tableaux. The windows also include the replica “Something Must Be Done” banner made by Jessie Steigerwald after careful research at period banners in Schlesinger’s collection. Look closely at items in the window to help solve some research mysteries! If anyone has information about Vera Lane or the original banner, please reach out to the Historical Society or LexSeeHer members.

GIRL SCOUTS LEAN IN TO LEARN

Girl Scout Troop 66265 volunteered to collect pledges for the monument project last March and that inspired the girls to continue working on the idea for their Silver Award. “When I asked the troop if this is something they’d be interested in leading, it was a unanimous ‘Yes!’ from the girls,” says leader Lauren Kennedy. “I am continually surprised by how excited and engaged the girls have been with this project; it has been the main focus of our year.”

With help from the Lexington Historical Society and the LexSeeHer committee, the girls have been researching and learning about bold Lexington women for the past eight months—holding meetings both virtually and socially-distanced in person. To make the women they have been studying more visible in town, the seventh-grade Cadette Scouts are designing vibrant banners to be installed in downtown Lexington for Women’s Equality Day this August.

Banners will incorporate the purple and gold colors used by American Suffragists who fought for the right to vote. Each banner will carry the silhouette of a woman whose contributions to Lexington are noteworthy. “We are having a lot of fun working on this project and we have learned a lot about the women of Lexington,” says Scout, Rory Kilgore. “When we were dressing up as women from different time periods we tried to think about what that woman accomplished and what we could add to the silhouette to make them each stand out.”

GET INVOLVED!

If you would like to become involved with LexSeeHer, visit the website. There will be continuing opportunities to celebrate the many inspiring Lexington women throughout the history of the town. All programs are intergenerational, incorporate the arts, and provide a chance to combine fun with fundraising. Sign up on the website to receive updates.

 

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Educational Speaker Series

Starting in the fall of 2020, LexSeeHer promoted ways to learn about monuments and monumental Lexington women by establishing the LexSeeHer Speaker Series as part of their Educational Outreach.  The Committee hosted prominent speakers in 2020 during Zoom meetings open to the community.  Guest speakers presented slide shows, spoke about their area of expertise and fielded questions from the Zoom audience.

Speakers in the series have included a committee member from the New York City Monumental Women organization that established the Women’s Rights

Pioneers monument in Central Park; historian Stacey Fraser, curator of the Lexington Historical Society Bold Women of Lexington exhibit; Kathy Jacob Schlesinger, Library archivist and author of a book on Civil War monuments; Emily Murphy, Curator for Salem Maritime and Saugus Ironworks National Historic Sites and researcher of the Lexington 1775 Spinning Match; Elise Adams, President of the New England Sculptors Association, and Erik Durant, Sculptor of many Massachusetts public sculptures.

Spring 2021
April speakers will include talks by local sculptors, state monument organizers, and historians specializing in research on women. Check the website, and register to be kept up-to-date on future speakers.

March 31st, 12:00 – 1:00 PM – A leader from Montgomery Alabama who established a city monument to honor motherhood and created a multi-media walking tour of women’s history of the city will speak to the group. Thye talk will include a virtual Tour of Montgomery Alabama, Birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement.

Visit LexSeeHer.com
to register for the Speaker Series sessions. 

Visit patriotsday.com for updated information

Or, if you have questions about any of these events, please email celebrationscmte@lexingtonma.gov

 

 

 

 

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Door to Patriotic Spirit – Online registration

Lexington’s Town Celebrations Committee (TCC) is inviting residents of Lexington to participate in “Door to Patriotic Spirit” by decorating the exterior of their front door with a patriotic theme. There will be an opportunity for the community to view your creativity.

Prizes will be awarded for winners based on the following criteria:

-Visual Impact,

-Craftmanship,

-Theme,

-Creativity, and

-Originality

There will be 9 Precinct Finalists (one from each Precinct) and one of them will be selected as a Grand Prize Winner.

Precinct Finalists will receive Gift Certificates worth $75 and the Grand Prize Winner will receive Gift Certificates for $200.

Gift Certificates are from Local Businesses.

Winners will be selected by appointed judges and will be informed by e-mail by the Town Celebrations Committee.

Go to patriotsday.com to register and for more information.

Monday, March 15 to Saturday, March 27

Patriots Point Walk: Miles & Smiles – Online registration

This is a great opportunity for families, friends, or school groups to enjoy a healthy walk, run or bike ride while accumulating miles visiting the many different historic monuments and memorials associated with Patriots’ Day.

The Town Celebrations Committee (TCC) will supply a map with these destinations marked; participants visit them, track their miles and take smile photos.
Participate in the Miles & Smiles Contest
In order to participate, you must be able to use a smartphone tracker app, or GPS tracker, and take photos of your tracks.
An online registration system will be available on Monday, March 22. Individuals, families or school groups may register through end of day on Monday, April 19.

On the registration system, you can:
-enter and update how many miles you’ve gone
-upload your GPS track images
-upload your Smile photos (see below)

Prizes will be awarded for:
-most miles traveled (based on GPS track images)
-most creatively designed travel routes
-best Smile photos

Photos will be posted online for voting within 48 hours of receipt. Judging is based on 50% community response and 50% Celebrations Committee input. Winners will be announced on April 26.

Smile Photos
Take selfies at the places you visit. We’ve created 2 Patriot Pals you can include in your photos (see right). Choose either one and personalize it by naming, coloring and decorating it. You can also post your photos to social media, using #PatriotPal. And be sure to link to the PatriotsDay.com website.
Monday, March 22 to Monday, April 19

HISTORIC  ZOOM  SEMINARS
In partnership with Cary Library
Sign up at patriotsday.com

• Monday, April 12 @ 1:15 – 3 pm
They Were Good Soldiers: The role of African-Americans in the regiments of the Continental Army, by John Rees
• Tuesday, April 13 @ 7 – 8:30 pm
“I am a daughter of liberty:” Women in the American Struggle for Independence, presented by Dr. Carol Berkin
• Wednesday, April 14
Voices of 1775, with James Hollister

COMMUNITY EVENTS
Lions Club:  Virtual 5K Road Race, register on line at http://www.lexingtonlions.org/5MileRoadRace.cfm
Boy Scout Troop #160: Virtual Pancake Breakfast sponsored by Boy Scout Troop #160. To order your take-away basket, visit https://www.troop160lexington.com/
On LexMedia April 19:

TOWN CELEBRATIONS COMMITTEE / PATRIOTS’ DAY ON PARADE

•A short history of Patriots’ Days

•Past Favorite parade participants

•Short video presentation of this year’s community events

LIONS CLUB EVENTS

USS Lexington Memorial https://usslexington.com/, A ceremony will be presented on LexMedia, Monday, April 19
Awards Minuteman Cane, White Tricorn Hat and Youth Commission – Recipients will be announced on LexMedia, Monday, April 19

OTHER EVENTS

• Hancock Church Handbell concert

• Rebroadcast of Dan Fenn’s “What Really Happened That Day.” Honor Dan’s memory by watching his half-hour talk on what really happened on April 19, 1775.

• Lexington Minute Men Company. For Patriots’ Day programming, visit lexingtonminutemen.com

• Lexington Historical Society, for programming https://www.lexingtonhistory.org/events.html

• 10th Regiment of Foot. For Patriots’ Day programming, visit http://www.redcoat.org/

• “To all the Friends of American Liberty”: The 1775 Lexington Alarm Letter at the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library @patriotsday.com https://www.srmml.org/

• Lexington Minute Men and Lexington Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution Zoom webinars – The Civilian Frenzy of April 19, 1775 and Huzzah! Researching Your Revolutionary Roots, to register, visit patriotsday.com

• Rebroadcast of Dan Fenn’s “What Really Happened That Day.” Honor Dan’s memory by watching his half-hour talk on what really happened on April 19, 1775.

• Lexington Minute Men Company. For Patriots’ Day programming, visit lexingtonminutemen.com

• Lexington Historical Society, for programming https://www.lexingtonhistory.org/events.html

• 10th Regiment of Foot. For Patriots’ Day programming, visit http://www.redcoat.org/

• “To all the Friends of American Liberty”: The 1775 Lexington Alarm Letter at the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library @patriotsday.com  https://www.srmml.org/

• Lexington Minute Men and Lexington Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution Zoom webinars – The Civilian Frenzy of April 19, 1775 and Huzzah!       Researching Your Revolutionary Roots, to register, visit patriotsday.com

 

 

Lexington Public Schools recently announced the rollout of a new plan to provide school-based testing for COVID-19 to help stop the spread in our community as a result of asymptomatic cases, adding the community’s growing and evolving body of knowledge into consideration when interpreting COVID-19 data. Teams of staff and volunteers have been working tirelessly to roll-out the plan which began Tuesday, January 12, 2021 and will continue for 8 weeks.

Kim McCormick, LHS PTO President, met virtually with Dr. Hackett to learn more about the plan. Their conversation appears below.

KIM MCCORMICK// Good morning Dr. Hackett, tell me about LPS’s COVID-19 Surveillance Plan
DR. HACKETT// Hi, Kim. We are excited to announce the roll-out of PCR Saliva Pool Testing for some of our staff and students. We know it has been a struggle for many to secure an appointment for COVID-19 testing, so we hope the school-based testing will make life easier for some of our staff and families.

KIM MCCORMICK// PCR Saliva Pool Testing, what does that mean?
DR. HACKETT// LPS entered into a Service Agreement with Mirimus Clinical Labs to conduct PCR Saliva Pool Testing. This testing can identify and isolate asymptomatic carriers of the COVID-19 virus, enhancing the health and safety of those in our school buildings and offices. Based on the efficacy studies conducted to date by Mirimus, pool test protocols detect the existence of the COVID-19 virus, which can be narrowed down to detection at an individual level. The COVID-19 testing protocol I just described is at a fraction of the cost of what it might otherwise be, providing an opportunity for LPS to regularly test a larger school population.

KIM MCCORMICK// Governor Baker just announced free COVID-19 testing for all Massachusetts public schools, how does this affect your plan?
DR. HACKETT// We began the process of developing an LPS COVID-19 Surveillance Testing Plan in December, as referenced in the letter I sent to families on December 23, 2020. On January 8, 2021, Governor Baker announced that there would be free weekly nasal swab testing for all school systems. Our plan includes staggered testing schedules for all LPS staff and all middle and high school students, as PCR saliva tests are more appropriate for these age groups. We plan to take full advantage of the State’s new nasal swab testing by offering it to our elementary school students. We submitted the required paperwork to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, and we are in the process of developing an elementary testing plan. Parents have an opportunity to weigh in on the process by accessing the survey we recently shared.

KIM MCCORMICK// Who is eligible to be tested?
DR. HACKETT// Testing is completely optional, although we highly recommend that everyone eligible participate. The tests will be available for all LPS staff, whether remote or hybrid, as well as Lexington High School students in Cohorts A and B Hybrid, and those participating in varsity and junior varsity sports, We also plan to offer testing to Clarke and Diamond students in Cohorts A and B Hybrid. Individuals who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in the past 90 days are not eligible. Individuals who have COVID-19 symptoms or do not feel well, should not take this test; they should get a diagnostic test following the recommendations and services available at Stop the Spread sites.

KIM MCCORMICK When will testing take place?
DR. HACKETT LPS staff who choose may participate in our pilot during the week of January 11th, and then on a staggered schedule. Students at LHS, Clarke, and Diamond in Cohort A will pick up their kits starting Tuesday Jan. 19th and test every other week for 4 weeks. Students at LHS, Clarke, and Diamond in Cohort B will pick up their kits on Thursday Jan. 21st and test every other week for 3 weeks. The difference in the number of testing times is due to the February break.

KIM McCORMICK// Why is LPS offering PCR Saliva Pool Testing now?
DR. HACKETT// We have been following the Harvard Global Health Institute (HGHI) guidance since May 2020. According to HGHI, “Surveillance testing for educators, paraprofessionals, and other staff is recommended in order to reduce the risk of asymptomatic transmission, once the level of community spread has exceeded 20/100,000 daily new cases. LPS recently reached 21/100,000 cases of COVID-19. The time is right to get Surveillance Testing underway in Lexington Public Schools, and we are grateful for our community’s partnership in this critical effort.

KIM MCCORMICK// Will LPS use COVID-19 Surveillance Testing to return to full in-person school?
DR. HACKETT// Surveillance testing means different things to different people in our school community – some want it to be a tool we can use to “go remote,” while others want to use it to make the case for a “full return” to school. I want to be very clear that we are not using LPS Surveillance Testing to determine a particular model of teaching and learning, instead we will follow the advice of the HGHI to ‘use metrics of community spread as general points of information, not on-off switches for closure and opening.’

KIM MCCORMICK// What is this costing the District?
DR. HACKETT// Our Service Agreement with Mirimus is for 8 weeks of testing and costs $229,000, which is equivalent to three or four full-time teaching positions to put the cost into perspective. The District is committed to funding this plan and enacted a budget freeze to ensure that we are able to cover the costs of surveillance testing. Some of our community partners, including the Lexington Education Foundation (LEF), are fundraising to supplement our effort, as many school communities have done. The complex models of teaching and learning developed to keep us safe during the pandemic are more costly. The good news is that new Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds are on the way, which may help to cover some of the costs. If we do not receive additional funding, we will need to continue to make reductions to our current operating budget in order to cover the costs.

KIM MCCORMICK // How can people donate to the LEF fund?
DR. HACKETT//We are greatly appreciative of the LEF and the Lexington community for all the support of our schools, both in terms of their volunteerism and through the generous donations for grants. Individuals may make donations directly to LEF from their website LexEdFoundation.org.

KIM MCCORMICK// Are there volunteer needs and opportunities?
DR. HACKETT// We are so thankful for our partnership with the PTO/As as well as the PTO President’s Council (PPC) for diving into this project and designing and managing the volunteer aspects in conjunction with our Director of School Health Services, Karen Rufo. Community members interested in helping may complete the volunteer form from a link on the LPS website.

KIM MCCORMICK// This is a big undertaking, thank you so much for your leadership.
DR. HACKETT// Thank you, Kim, and I want to be sure that the community knows that so many LPS staff, as well as community volunteers and the School Committee have been instrumental in making this plan not only possible, but also operational. I’d like to specifically thank Karen Rufo, Director of School Health Services and all the LPS nurses and the custodial staff who are essential individuals in the success of the plan. They are truly our local heroes who take risks everyday to help preserve the health and safety of our entire school community and our students.