By Marie Pfeifer
Meet Me in Morristown, the monthly “Last Thursday” summertime happening, happened on Friday this time, because of an unsettled forecast on its regular date.
Young and old alike seemed to have little trouble making the switch, coming downtown to enjoy restaurants, crafts, art works, poetry and music.
Maya Stein and Amy Tingle of the Food 4 the Soul Train brought their trailer into town with a promise of writing two poems if you gave them just one word. True to their word, I gave them one, “living,” and this is what they gave back to me:
The tomatoes were insistent.
They began growing roots where roots didn’t belong.
They began reaching earthward, as their stems grew heavy and limp.
They stretched to capacity, every fiber, and every cell, just for the sake of living.
When I found them, the leaves wee on their last legs, paper-thin, almost bloodless.
But the fruit, the fruit was magnificent.
–Maya Stein
When I was little the term living room confused me.
Was it a room filled with living things?
Plants–a cactus or two.
Maybe a raccoon or an elk, a hive of bees, ants marching one by one, each ecstatic to be living.
Not much living went on in our living room, too much plastic on the furniture.
When I grew up I was going to do all my living outside of the room.
I was going to do a lot of living.
—Amy Tingle
Slideshow photos by Marie Pfeifer. Please click icon below for captions.
Kadie Dempsey, director of arts in the community for Morris Arts, said her goal is to attract young artists, musicians and craftsmen to participate in Meet Me in Morristown, to provide cultural attractions for young adults who visit here. The event is a joint presentation of Morris Arts and the Morristown Partnership.
Lauren Morreale, a former MorristownGreen.com correspondent, came to town with friends to support a neighbor, Malachi Dee, lead singer and guitarist of the band, “Craft.” They planned to stay for dinner and drinks afterward.
Gail Marfdin exhibited her art work at Meet Me in Morristown for the first time last week.
“I love the location,” she said. “It puts me in the right spot to hear the music!”
Fellow exhibitor Erika Domanico of Sassy Scraps, also a first-timer, declared downtown Morristown a “great, happening place.”
Ally Wagner, Caroline Caldarola, Alli Heal, Mikayla Young and Clarie Caldarola, all Valley Girls–Long Valley, that is– attended a wedding at a nearby church, but planned to stick around to have dinner and enjoy the evening.
The only casualty of the rescheduling was the Metropolitan Saxophone Quintet, which was scheduled to perform on the lawn of the Morristown & Township Library. Actually, the quintet did perform– at its original time on Thursday. Prior commitments prevented the musicians from playing on Friday.
The summer’s final edition of Meet Me in Morristown is scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 27, 2015. If you are an artist, performer or vendor interested in participating, the fee is $20. More details are here.
And don’t forget the final free lunchtime concert of Music Beyond Borders, which concludes its sixth season on Tuesday, Aug. 4, with Korean Traditional Dance of Choomnoori, at 12:30 pm on the Morristown Green.
It’s an hour-long presentation of Morris Arts and the Mayo Performing Arts Center. Here’s how they describe this show:
Preserving the rich heritage of traditional Korean dances, KTDOC performs a variety of dances such as the Drum Dance, the Fan Dance, the Mask Dance and others, showcasing the elegant costumes and distinctive, carefully synchronized, stylized gestures and movements which convey a wide range of emotions, relate tales of village life and depict the beauties of nature.
If the weather does not cooperate, the dancing moves across the street, into the Morristown United Methodist Church.
MORE COVERAGE OF ‘MEET ME IN MORRISTOWN’
MORE COVERAGE OF ‘MUSIC BEYOND BORDERS’
