I recently visited the new Irish Cultural Center of the Hudson Valley for a recording of Kingston Wire’s weekly podcast with Nadine Ferraro to preview this weekend’s upcoming Hooley on the Hudson festival down in the Rondout. I was warmly greeted into the space by members of the ICCHV who began the conversation in a way I assume they do regularly: Would you like a drink?

The building where the center is now located was formerly a junkyard, ICCHV member John Kelly told me as he led me to the rear stairwell out the back door. From this view, you can see the inlet of the Rondout Creek at the point where it merges with the Hudson River. On the grass between the parking lot and shoreline were railroad tracks where, Kelly told me, the trolley often rolls along. If you follow the tracks to the left, it leads to Kingston Point Beach, and to the right, the Strand.

Standing back there, just the two of us, perfect strangers, Kelly told me he likes to take a chair out here to sit and stare out at the water. He told me about all the people he sees walk down the railroad tracks each day. He recalled a recent memory about a woman walking her dog who decided, in the middle of the tracks, that he would walk no further. As Kelly chuckled at the woman’s situation, I imagined her pleading gently, then more forcefully, with the dog as it sat there, as if lame, exhausted or just plain dumb. He said she called out to him and said, “So you think this is funny?” He laughed as he told it to me.

I run past this building nearly every day on my morning or evening run but I had never seen this view of the Rondout before, at the point where creek meets river, the intersection of a great, totemic force with a small but mighty counterpart.

A few days prior, on Friday night, I attended a “full moon party” in Rosendale at a friend’s property which had private access to the Rondout from many miles south of where the rest of this story takes place. At this part of the creek, yet another new perspective of this body of water I have driven across, bathed in, mused over, I saw its beauty in a way I may never again: with a blue heron standing stoically on a jutting rock as the last light of day shimmered on the water, river bugs creating a constellation on its surface, and, all at once, the moon reflecting impressions on our monochrome skins.

This is a column about the arts and culture in Kingston but lest we forget the moments that are the ignition to our creative engines, I am here to remind you that all the arts and culture in Kingston would be only fable if not for the seismic world that surrounds us. It’s in the foods we eat, the streets we traverse, the storied homes and businesses we wane and wander in.

The Past Is Not Even Past

I’ve been reflecting a lot on history, and it seems I’m not the only one. Ulster County’s Historical Society recently announced their Sunday Salon Series, taking place every Sunday until Nov. 1 for a total of nine lectures encompassing the title theme of their program: "Cultural Mosaic: Stories of Arrival, Survival, and Belonging."

Though the program takes place down the road at the historic Bevier House Museum in Marbletown, the lectures provide unique perspectives of the many peoples who have built this county from the ground up.

The upcoming lecture this Sunday is appropriately about "The Irish in Ulster County: Migration, Roots, and the Long Road to Irish Freedom." The talk is led by Ulster County Historian Eddie Moran.

Until November, the lectures will cover ground from Irish and Italian immigrants to our county’s ruins, the Hurley Mountain community, Woodstock, IBM and more. The series is a logistical reminder of the many cultures and cultural events whose significance would likely be forgotten if it wasn’t for our stalwart historians and lecturers bringing their stories into the limelight.

Tickets to the shows and more information on upcoming events can be seen here.

Rock Within the Radius

Taking a very contemporary left-turn, I want to shout out a website I recently happened upon which is about as straightforward and to the point as a website can get. Kingston Radius came on my radar through a Reddit thread asking for thoughts on the website from, I assume, the creator/programmer.

As someone who has avidly used and sourced material from sites like Kingston Happenings for this column when I’m looking for some weekend inspiration, Kingston Radius has the densely populated listings like Kingston Happenings without all the ads. It’s also strictly music-related.

The site seems to be heavily doused with music events all over the city, and even has a handy toolbar at the top of the screen (really the only other accoutrements of the page) that lets you indicate whether you’d like to see events in Kingston only, or if you’d like to spread your radius to events taking place 30, 60 or 90 minutes or less away from Kingston. You can also select your event by date or venue.

It makes you feel like Kingston really is the center of the universe (sorry High Falls) when you find websites like this that emphasize the city’s relevance not only as a musical destination but as a starting point to engage in other events throughout the valley.

The listings each provide the date, time, title, location and ticket price. Like I said, it’s bare bones. It has a very distinctly early-internet feel that has been creeping back in small ways every so often. Needless to say, I’m a fan, and the site gets a thumbs up from me. Go check it out for all your Kingston and Kingston-adjacent music event needs (and no, I promise this is not sponsored by them).

What's New at ASK

Finally, this Saturday, Sept. 5 is the opening reception of the Arts Society of Kingston’s new exhibits, which will be open from the reception until Sept. 27.

The three exhibits span photography, installation works, and a juried exhibition from a wide range of artists exploring many mediums. The themes of these exhibits include “landscape, memory, identity, and the extraordinary beauty found in the natural world and everyday life.”

In the Spotlight Gallery, the exhibit "Iceland by 4" includes photography by Chris Acosta, Lee Courtney, Mark Howenstein, and John Verner, all of, if you couldn’t guess, the raw and beautiful landscape that is Iceland. As someone who has taken many trips to the land of Nords, fjords and Vikings, my curiosity was piqued when I read the description of this exhibit. Iceland, though a small country whose perimeter you could drive in mere days, is one of the most fascinating and topographically stunning countries in the world.

The Members Gallery will have their juried exhibit, which they are calling "Poetry of the Ordinary," and is art celebrating the beauty of the everyday.

The Front Gallery will pose "Echoes of the Ancestral," with sculptural installation art honoring Hispanic Heritage month by Argentinian-American artist Elisa Pritzker, “exploring collective memory, ancestral identity, and the enduring connections between past and present.”

The opening reception will take place this Saturday from 3-5 p.m. The artists will be present to discuss their work and relish in the coming months of slower pace and more space to sit and let inspiration fester. The Arts Society of Kingston is located at 97 Broadway.