Happy Valentine’s Day! Here’s a heart-shaped box filled with sweet treats for your Hudson Valley events itinerary.
Chocolate and Wine in Montgomery | February 14
City Winery Hudson Valley in Montgomery is hosting an evening filled with chocolates and wine on February 14 at 6pm. Attendees of the event will be able to enjoy a guided pairing of a wide sampling of chocolates with a selection of fine signature City Winery wines. Light bites are also included with the package. All guests must be 21 or older and indoor guests must show proof of vaccine or having received a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of the event. Tickets are $60.
Vinnie Martucci Live at SUNY New Paltz | February 15
The Studley Theater on the campus of SUNY New Paltz will present a night of original compositions and arrangements performed by composer, jazz pianist, and retiring SUNY Department of Music chair Vinnie Martucci. Offered as a special farewell tribute concert to the long-time faculty member, the performance will bring musicians from multiple genres to collaborate and improvise. Tickets are $10 (free for SUNY New Paltz students).
Lecture on Local Slavery History | February 17
On February 17 at 6pm, the Esopus Library will stream a live talk by Peter Bunten, the chairman of the Mid-Hudson Antislavery History Project, that reviews the history of slavery and anti-slavery in the Hudson Valley, with an emphasis on Dutchess and Ulster counties. Topics will include the movement and growth of enslavement throughout the region; the development of antislavery attitudes and action; and the role that the Underground Railroad played on both sides of the Hudson River. The free lecture will highlight the key players, events, and issues that are part of this indelible history. Viewers can join on Zoom via this link: https://bit.ly/34ta1Bf
Oblong Books Hosts Rebecca Mead | February 17
As part of its Oblong Books’ “Oblong Online” series, author Rebecca Mead will discuss her new memoir, Home/Land: A Memoir of Departure & Return, on February 17 at 5pm. When the New Yorker writer relocated to her birth city of London with her family in the summer of 2018, she was both fleeing the political situation in America and seeking to expose her son to a wider world. Home/Land chronicles what she learned along the way. Register for the free talk at the Oblong Books (locations in Rhinebeck and Millerton) website.
EMPAC Presents Black Body Amnesia | February 18
A performance project at EMPAC in Troy by author, performance artist, educator, and curator Jaamil Olawale Kosoko, Black Body Amnesia accompanies Kosoko’s forthcoming book, Black Body Amnesia: Poems and Other Speech Acts. The piece blends poetry, memoir, conversation, and performance theory to enliven Kosoko’s personal archive of visual and verbal offerings. Inspired by Audre Lorde’s concept of biomythography, the artist’s archive “refracts the shapeshifting, illegible, and fugitive realities of Black diasporan people within the American context to tell a complex narrative rooted within a queer, Black, self-defined, and feminist imagination.” Tickets are free with registration.
Anaïs Mitchell at the Old Dutch Church | February 20
The Tony- and Grammy-winning Anaïs Mitchell is the creator of the book, music, and lyrics for Broadway’s hit “Hadestown” (the play won a 2019 Tony for Best Musical). Here, the Bardavon presents the songwriter in concert with the folk super group Bonny Light Horseman—comprised of Mitchell, Eric D. Johnson (Fruit Bats, the Shins), and Josh Kaufman (Hiss Golden Messenger, Bob Weir, the National)—at the beautiful Old Dutch Church in Kingston’s Stockade District on February 20 at 7pm. Tickets are $34 and $48.
New Art Exhibit in New Paltz | through April 10
“Somewhere in Advance of Nowhere: Freedom Dreams in Contemporary Art,” an exhibition on view through April 10 at the SUNY New Paltz Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, lauds the vital role of artists in dismantling broken systems, envisioning new shared realities, and building future alternatives. The exhibition, which has been curated by author Nico Wheadon, focuses on art, not as a static object to be consumed but rather as a revolutionary process that, as historian Robin D.G. Kelly asserts, “can and must transform us.” See website for hours and information.
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This article appears in February 2022.
