Chappaqua Interfaith Community Thanksgiving Service and Dinner, Nov. 20, 2016

I wasn't planning to publish photos of this event but it was requested of me by the minister of the host church and one of its members.

Clicking on a photo in most browsers will either open a slide display or enlarge the individual photo.

The cause supported this year is the Westchester Refugee Task Force, whose mission statement is at the end of the posting.




You can figure out who is who if you wish, with some exceptions, I can't.  I've posted in the order the events occurred. Here's an outline of the participants: 

November 20, 2016 

Interfaith Community Thanksgiving Service and Dinner
First Congregational Church, Chappaqua NY

Sponsored by the Chappaqua Interfaith Council



Rev. Dr. Martha Jacobs
First Congregational Church

 

Badr BaSaeed  

 

Temple Beth El of Northern Westchester
Children of the World
Temple Beth El’s Jew-Be-Glee Senior Choir,
Directed by Cantor Star Trompeter



Hindu Community
Gail, Ayan and Ethan Makode




Baha’is of New Castle
Baha’i Community Choir
Under the direction of Susan Cody



Native American Prayer
Recited by Ellen Lewis



First Congregational Church



Chancel Choir with Keith Robellard, Minister of Music



Chappaqua Friends Meeting


Upper Westchester Muslim Society



Badr BaSaeed;Numan Maloney.



Guest Speaker
Mary Refling
Westchester Refugee Task Force


The Sikh Community
Tej Anand

 
St. John and St. Mary Catholic Church
St. John and St. Mary Choir
Organ:  Kyle Mango, Director of Music



Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer
Rev. Dr. Leigh Pezet



St. Mary the Virgin Episcopal Church
Gail Dedona and Molly Holmes


Introduction of the new Rector of St. Mary the Virgin, Episcopal
Rev. Canon Alan Dennis
by Rev. Dr. Martha Jacobs



Blessing of the Meal
Rev. Canon Alan Dennis


Westchester Refugee Task Force
Email:  westchesterrefugeetaskforce@gmail.com

Westchester Refugee Task Force includes many churches, synagogues, Islamic centers, civic groups and individuals, which work together with other agencies to advocate for and support refugee resettlement efforts in Connecticut and Westchester County.

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In memoriam Leonard Cohen: There's a crack where the water comes in

For Leonard Cohen, it was light that came through the break in the world and as in Genesis, from the light came everything else.

For me, it's the water.

http://kayester.blogspot.com/2016/11/in-memoriam-leonard-cohen-theres-crack.html

East Village, autumn, Sunday

East Village, autumn, Sunday, trying to stay optimistic in an era of noisy divisiveness and a decided lack of civility in the political process.

Stopping to talk in front of the William Barnacle Tavern, a former speak easy, downstairs from the NY Gangsters Museum and next door to the Theater 80. Larkin, the owner, isn’t around but the bartender, Jody, a Scottish woman now 12 years in New York, is setting out the happy hour signs. We chat about Scotch, living in NYC, and the best places to drink Scotch in NYC. Mike Quinn from Brooklyn who’s rented a space about the size of a closet, with a window out onto the street, is getting ready to sell his Feltman’s hot dog. He either runs or used to run historical tours of Coney Island and kept a Brooklyn blog.

Arnie, the super of a building somewhere on the block stops to chat. He’s got his dogs, Marie and Houdini, and they are a calm pair of pooches, obviously beloved, certainly pampered. Arnie is unhappy about people who throw away their wet garbage but don’t tie the bags shut. He can’t get any respect, but Jody and Mike like him and respect him.

Around the corner at East Village Cheese I get into a conversation with a woman who is trying to find some Latin American cheese for a recipe. The store doesn’t have any but she and I discuss the flavor profile of the required cheese and make suggestions. She is with her mom, Rhonda who’s in from Long Island to go to a show with her daughters - “Something Rotten.”

One of these days I’ll go back and get a picture of the bartender.

By then the woman below will have figured out how to use the Citibike kiosk.

http://kayester.blogspot.com/2016/11/east-village-autumn-sunday-trying-to.html

Shadow Life - Shadow Box

My beat's the streets.

Not my usual street photography. 

Click on the photos to make them larger.

I'd appreciate knowing what you think.

http://kayester.blogspot.com/2016/11/shadow-life-shadow-box.html

Getting to know the neighbors - June 2016

Catching up is hard to do. It does seem that the faster you run the further behind you get. I think Lewis Carroll made that observation in “Alice Through the Looking Glass.” As an example, I took photos at a holiday party nearly two years ago and I haven’t edited them yet. If instead I work on things that I’m doing now, I can jump this way and that when I have time and catch up one thimbleful at a time.

I’ve been working in the area of Madison Ave. and E. 48^th St. for 2 ½ years. It was a strange experience after working further down in Midtown for many years, and then near Penn Station. This neighborhood is far more crowded all of the time. There are more office buildings and they are mostly taller so the pedestrian traffic is awful. If it were cars, it would be gridlock. There are construction sites on every other block, sidewalks narrowed by the protective sheds or diverted into the street, protected from automotive traffic by orange and white plastic barriers.

Yet I’m out and about and I’ve become a friendly acquaintance with people in some of the stores, restaurants and delis and some of the banks, and faces I see every day in passing occasionally become people to whom I say hello.

I shot these photos in June 2016. It was a lovely early summer afternoon and she was outside the place where she’s employed. She had been very helpful when I had some minor issues with the accounts I maintain with her employer so a nodding in passing became a hello how are you. I thank her for letting me take these photos and put them up here.



As for the guy on the lavender scooter - is that a Vespa? - I think someone should have just walked over to him and taken the phone out of his hand. I might have but I was busy taking his picture. Even when waiting for the light, distracted driving is dangerous. If he hasn't bred yet, he has put himself in the running for a Darwin award.

If you like the color, the scooter's pretty nice.

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Better Late Than Never: photos from "A Superintendent's Eyes"

I cannot believe it's three years now since the poet Steve Dalachinsky and I worked on the book, A Superintendent's Eyes (Unbearables Books/Autonomedia) and I never put any of the photos from the book up here, on the blog, for everyone to peruse, enjoy and comment on.

So, here we are. A selection of some that made it in and some that never made it into the book.

If you've never read Steve's poetry, it's time. If you have, I need say no more.

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Melissa and Ron: two clerks in a bookstore that isn't there anymore

Sometimes looking for old photos leads to discovering unexpected treasures. An overly organized person never knows the incredible pleasure of finding something you didn't even know you ever had, or something so worth remembering that you can't imagine how you ever forgot them.

That's these photos of Melissa and Ron, two clerks who worked together at the Posman's Bookstore that sat near the southern end of Grand Central Terminal's Vanderbilt Passage.

I used to stop in to see them regularly and became very good friend's with Ron Kolm, a writer, editor, one of the original Unbearables, a great bookseller and an all around nice guy. The other is Melissa - I can't remember her last name right now. She was into ink, so in a way, working in a bookstore was very appropriate. But it wasn't her calling so she did eventually move on.

These photos were taken without planning and in commemoration of that, they are essentially unedited.

Looking at them, I see that each is the chapter of a story. Maybe some day I'll write that story.

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