Westport Mentor Celebrates End of School Year with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Connecticut
Big Brothers Big Sisters Press Release: Westport resident Jane Steiger, left, is a Big Sister (adult mentor) in the site-based youth mentoring program sponsored by the Bridgeport School System and managed by Big Brothers Big Sisters of Connecticut. Jane’s Little Sister (mentee) in the program is Emely, right, who lives in Bridgeport. The two got together recently - along with a host of other mentors and mentees from the program – for a celebratory luncheon at Testo’s Restaurant in Bridgeport to mark the end of the 2021-2022 school year’s program. Besides fun and delicious food, the festive event hosted by Big Brothers Big Sisters also included giveaways, table bingo, trivia games and multiple bonding moments. Joining the celebrants for lunch and to offer remarks were Michael J. Testani, Bridgeport Superintendent of Schools and Andy Fleischmann, President & CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Connecticut.
Morning Weather Report
Today
A 40 percent chance of showers, mainly before 11am. Areas of fog before 11am. Otherwise, cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 76. Light and variable wind becoming south around 6 mph in the morning.
Tonight
Partly cloudy, with a low around 57. Calm wind.
Tomorrow
Sunny, with a high near 77. Light west wind increasing to 6 to 11 mph in the morning.
Tomorrow Night
Clear, with a low around 54. Northwest wind 3 to 7 mph.
Kerstin Rao Announced as Westport Book Shop’s June Exhibiting Artist
The Westport Book Shop is pleased to welcome artist Kerstin Rao as guest exhibitor for the month of June at the Book Shop’s Drew Friedman Art Place.
On display are four art prints of Kerstin’s detailed colored pencil floral drawings, along with a surprise element — QR codes to scan so you can see each piece being created via time-lapse video.
Kerstin’s work is hyper-local. Her pieces begin at the Westport Farmers Market with bouquets from Muddy Feet Flower Farm, which she draws in her Westport home. Next, her hand-drawn paper work is digitally scanned in Westport, and printed in Norwalk. Her art business, Vivid Cottage, offers luxury stationery and home goods based on her original artwork, available at www.vividcottage.com, and now also at the Westport Book Shop.
Kerstin is an artist, educator, entrepreneur, and improv comedian. Kerstin majored in Fine Art at Vassar, and earned a Master’s degree in Special Education at Bank Street College of Education. She taught thousands of students for more than three decades, including 22 years with the Westport Public Schools, before returning to her first passion, art, during the pandemic. Kerstin also volunteers with the Westport Library, facilitating author panels and book talks, helping to plan events such as WestportReads, and was a founding member of the Westport Maker Faire.
Kerstin’s four floral prints will be on exhibit at the Book Shop through June 30, 2022. All artwork on display is available for purchase.
Westport Book Shop, a nonprofit used book store, is downtown Westport’s only source for gently used and antiquarian books, vintage vinyl records, CDs, DVDs and audio books. It is located at 23 Jesup Road, right across Jesup Green from the Westport Library.
Westport COVID-19 Cases Up 17; State Positivity Rate 10.83%, Hospitalizations Down 25
The State Department of Public Health reported 17 more cases in Westport over the past day. The State’s daily test positivity rate was up to 10.83% while hospitalizations were down 25 patients.
Westport total positive or probable cases: 5,058 cases.
Westport total COVID-19 Deaths: 36 deaths
State Daily Test Positivity: 10.83% [up from 10.73%]
State Hospitalizations: 311 patients [-25]
Westport Fireworks Set for Thursday, June 30th; Tickets On Sale Now
PAL President, Police Officer Craig Bergamo is shown presenting ticket number 1 to Melissa and Doug Bernstein. Pictured from the left to right are Police Chief Foti Koskinas, Officer Craig Bergamo, Doug Bernstein, Melissa Bernstein, First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker, Director of Parks and Recreation Jennifer Fava, Deputy Police Chief Sam Arciola.Westport PAL Press Release:The Westport Police Athletic League (PAL) and the Westport Parks and Recreation are pleased to announce the return of the Independence Day Fireworks Celebration on Thursday, June 30th, 2022 at Compo Beach in Westport.
Long time Westport residents and Staples Alums, Melissa and Doug Bernstein, who once again are sponsoring this year’s Fireworks event, said “After a long 2 year wait, we’re beyond thrilled to partner again with the Westport Police Athletic League to bring this amazing celebration back to Westport; we can’t wait to see our incredible community celebrating together again at Compo Beach on June 30th!”
The Westport PAL would like to thank Melissa and Doug Bernstein for their continued support of the Westport Police Athletic League and this year’s sponsorship. Ticket sales will begin on June 3rd, 2022 and can be purchased at the Westport Police Department at 50 Jesup Road and at the Westport Parks and Recreation office at 260 Compo Road South in Westport. Tickets sales are limited and are on a first come first serve basis. Firework tickets are $40.00 per car and once tickets are sold out, shuttle passes will be available. The rain date for the event is scheduled for Friday, July 1st, 2022.
Post Road Closed for Accident Investigation; Pedestrian Reported Struck
UPDATE
Post Road is now open.
First responders were dispatched to the area of Post Road East at Church Lane in Downtown Westport this afternoon, just before 1:00 PM, for the report of a person struck by a vehicle. The roadway was subsequently shut down between Myrtle Avenue and Parker Harding Plaza while investigations took place and was reopened shortly after 2:00 PM. No information has been released.
Morning Weather Report
Today
A slight chance of showers, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. Patchy fog before 10am. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with a high near 77. Calm wind becoming southeast around 6 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
Tonight
Showers and thunderstorms likely before 2am, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after 2am. Patchy fog after 2am. Otherwise, cloudy, with a low around 61. Southeast wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
Tomorrow
A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms before 8am, then a slight chance of showers between 8am and 2pm. Patchy fog before 8am. Otherwise, cloudy through mid morning, then gradual clearing, with a high near 75. North wind 6 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
Tomorrow Night
Mostly clear, with a low around 57. Northwest wind 3 to 6 mph.
SoundWaters Welcomes Two Staples Seniors for Spring Internship
(L-R): Staples Seniors Vivien Lynch and Sam Leopold. Contributed photo. SoundWaters Press Release: SoundWaters, the Stamford-based environmental education organization, has welcomed two High School seniors from Staples High School for its spring internship program. Vivien Lynch and Sam Leopold are working for five weeks at the organization’s Coastal Education Center at Cove Island Park in Stamford. The Staples pair is part of a larger group of spring interns from several area high schools who, instead of attending classes for the final weeks of their high school careers, work in internships to experience a real-world business environment.
At SoundWaters, the interns from Staples are working every day alongside and under the guidance of SoundWaters professional educators, teaching the science of Long Island Sound to pre-school, elementary and middle school students from schools across the region. They are helping students in a classroom and lab setting, but also on the beach and in boats on Holly Pond where their young students do their field work. Over the five week period of their internship, they will work with over 1900 students.
“SoundWaters is an amazing organization and I am lucky to have this internship. I get to work outside around the water with kids and help them learn about Long Island Sound and how to protect the environment,” said Sam Leopold, who will be attending Washington University in St. Louis in the fall. “I enjoy helping the students, and I’m also learning a lot about Long Island Sound myself and how a non-profit works,” Leopold added.
“The SoundWaters High School Internship Program is a model for professional development and environmental stewardship. Our interns develop their job and leadership skills on a daily basis as they perform scientific experiments, aquarium maintenance and assist with our STEM programs, reaching over 100 students each day. The SoundWaters intern program is a powerful learning experience,” said Christina Genz, SoundWaters Director of Education.
MoCA Announces New Exhibition of Women’s Woven Art Pieces that show Social and Political Awareness
MoCA Westport Press Release:
Silvana Soriano. We (Are) the People, 2020. Mixed media on canvas; alpaca wool, acrylic paint. 40 x 60 in. Contributed photoMoCA [Museum of Contemporary Art] Westport announces the opening of Women Pulling at the Threads of Social Discourse in collaboration with The Contemporary Art Modern Project (The CAMP Gallery) and the Fiber Artists Miami Association (FAMA). The exhibition explores how female artists, utilizing textiles as their medium, subvert the social expectation of crafting by lambasting this soft medium with political and social awareness.
Women Pulling at the Threads of Social Discourse will be on view at MoCA Westport from June 30 - September 4, 2022. An opening reception for the exhibition will be held on Thursday, June 30, 2022 from 6 – 8 p.m. at the Museum. The reception is free and open to the public.
The exhibition was curated by Melanie Prapopoulos, Maria Gabriela Di Giammarco, and Mario Andres Rodriguez of The CAMP Gallery, with locations in both Miami, Florida and Westport, Connecticut.
Portions of this exhibition were originally shown at The CAMP Gallery Miami in partnership with Fiber Artists Miami Association (FAMA) in 2020. This inaugural collaboration featured predominantly female artists exploring their relationship with themselves and their communities at the intersections of femininity, race, history, and feminist sociopolitics. The 2020 exhibition coincided with the centennial of the passage of the 19th Amendment, which gave women in the United States the right to vote, the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and a Presidential election year.
The original exhibition has now expanded to include fiber works from artists in the Northeastern United States in an effort to reflect on action in the context of time, while exploring the feminine experience and identity across space.
Textile work, historically, is inextricable from the lived experience of women transnationally, and is continually relegated to the realm of the “feminine.” Considering the sameness of voices given importance in society, and how this homogeneity has been supported by centuries of long-held social norms, it is all the more necessary to turn to the feminine experience; including these voices, historically made to become silent observers, allows for an authentic shift in perspective, one that enriches, rather than destroys, our collective reality.
“The marriage of the female artist to the textile medium, both outwardly and socially expected to be weak, in the hands of these artists, is affirming that strength lies in durability, pliability, and resolve,” explained Ruth Mannes, MoCA Westport’s Executive Director.
This version of the exhibition focuses on flags; the flag banner is used as a metaphor or symbol of solidarity for the women of the suffrage movement and as an emblem of protest. The flags in Women Pulling at the Threads of Social Discourse were assembled using mixed media and the fiber arts to ignite positive social change. Within the exhibition, the visitor will experience flags composed completely of a range of fiber, from organza, velvet, linen, and silk, to repurposed clothes and plastics, jute, yarn, and canvas.
To bolster this exploration of the history of textile work within the scope of the feminine experience, Women Pulling at the Threads of Social Discourse is being shown alongside works by sculptor Shelly McCoy and artist Aurora Molina, and an interactive fiber installation.
Laura Villareal. Breaking Borders: Mapping of a Suffragette, 2020. Naturally dyed fabric, textiles, yarn, and image transfer on cotton. 40 x 60 in. Contributed photo. McCoy’s debut exhibition with The CAMP Gallery, March on Society, is reimagined for MoCA Westport’s space, a survey of the artist’s straightforward artistic voice. Her reinterpretation of the American flag made of crayons spelling out “democracy,” latex condoms for In Latex We Trust, and the interactive We the People, is an extension of her practice and politics, marrying her use of functional items and textiles with complex social commentary on gender, collective action, and hope.
Molina’s Woven Destinies series, made from repurposed t-shirt yarn, presents faceless images of everyday citizens demonstrating in the public sphere. With source material traversing recorded protests both past and present, Molina’s protesters are intended to be vessels for reflection as well as kinship; her weaving process is based upon that of Indigenous traditions throughout the Americas.
Punctuating Women Pulling at the Threads of Social Discourse is an interactive loom experience, an initiative beginning with weaving from the FAMA founders and ending along the exhibition. This collaborative fiber art installation aims to weave in the audience in the same manner each fiber present in the exhibition sees history, experience, and value embodied.
Exhibition curator Melanie Prapopoulos stated, “At the time of the first edition of the exhibition’s opening in September 2020, we mourned the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Today, in 2022, we worry about the possible overturning of Roe v. Wade.”
“The exhibition and its message - the right to vote, and the action and responsibility of everyone voting – is just as important now as in the past. The artists are the present-day warriors still carrying the torch first lit over one hundred years ago,” Prapopoulos added.
For more information on the exhibition, contact Liz Leggett, Director of Exhibitions for MoCA Westport at liz@mocawestport.org or 203/222-7070.
Artists Included In the Exhibition
Laetitia Adam-Rabel, Alissa Alfonso, Carlos Bautista Biernnay, Nancy Billings, Liene Bosquê, Pip Brant, Carola Bravo, Mabelin Castellanos, Melissa Dadourian, Camille Eskell, Susan Feliciano, Molly Gambardella, Amy Gelb, Joseph Ginsberg, Jac Lahav, Maria Lino, Laura Marsh, Sooo-z Mastropietro, Caitlin McCormack, Shelly McCoy, Jeanne Jaffe & Molly McGreevy, Norma Minkowitz, Aurora Molina, Valeria Montag, Chiara No, Evelyn Politzer, Rosana Machado Rodriguez, Alina Rodriguez Rojo, Damian Rojo, Margaret Roleke, Debora Rosental, Rosario Salazar, Yolanda Sanchez, Natalia Schonowski, Leslie Sheryll, Silvana Soriano, Maru Ulivi, Rita Valley, Lisu Vega, Laura Villareal, Joan Wheeler, Silvia Yapur, and Wendy Wahl.
Westport COVID-19 Cases Up 14; State Hospitalizations and Positivity Rate Up
The State Department of Public Health reported 14 more cases in Westport over the past day. The State’s daily test positivity rate was up to 10.73% while hospitalizations were up 15 patients.
Westport total positive or probable cases: 5,041 cases.
Westport total COVID-19 Deaths: 36 deaths
State Daily Test Positivity: 10.73% [up from 10.18%]
State Hospitalizations: 336 patients [+15]