Celebrating Bethlehem's Southside Culture
I found Virginia Abbott, a long-standing Banana Factory Arts Center resident artist, hard at work in her studio one Wednesday afternoon. Abbott warmly welcomed me. Her space is bright, open, and inviting. Like many of the studios at the Banana Factory Arts Center, there’s an almost palpable energy here—“good vibes,” if you will. Abbott has…
On Friday, June 9th Tom and Betty Druckenmiller with Norm Williams took to the Godfrey Daniels stage, which celebrated 41 years in March. In an attempt to make the listening room as much like a porch as possible the group brought iced tea which they served in mason jars and Tom brought along an antique…
Many Tuesdays before the film screening I sit outside the theater with Dana Baker, the Frank Banko Alehouse Cinema Coordinator, and greet patrons as he tears their tickets. This past Tuesday, we were awaiting the start of A Quiet Passion, a Terence Davies film about the life of Emily Dickinson. As we stood by the…
NOTE: The discussion of Norman below contains some plot spoilers. Joseph Cedar’s Norman, the Israeli director’s first American production, is a film that can easily take you by surprise. Its trailer suggests a playful look at a charming conniver who is out of his depth. Although there is truth to that description, it doesn’t quite encompass…
Dick Boak from C.F. Martin & Co. regaled an intimate crowd at NCC’s Fab Lab Coffee House on Thursday evening, May 18, with stories of his fascinating career, songs performed on his beloved autoharp, and jam sessions with musicians from the audience including local luminary Dave Fry. One of the most amazing careers anyone could ever…
I’ve enjoyed leading discussions of so many brilliant and entertaining films at the Frank Banko Alehouse Cinemas through the years, but the anticipation for the May 16th screening of Jordan Peele’s horror film Get Out was positively electric. It’s not that the crowd was particularly large, not for a film that was one week away…
2017 marks the 200th anniversary of beloved British author Jane Austen’s death, as well as the publication of her two final novels, Persuasion and Northanger Abbey. To celebrate, the Bethlehem Area Public Library and the Lehigh University English department are partnering in a discussion series. Each month, a group of community members and Lehigh students and…
Whenever I introduce my undergraduate students to the classic maternal melodrama, Stella Dallas, I always feel a little sad that they don’t like the protagonist as much as I do. Stella, played by the brilliant Barbara Stanwyck, is a young, working-class woman, who marries a much wealthier man named Stephen after some practical, strategic wooing….
Since the age of seven, Melissa Perhamus knew that “there was something powerful” to her art. So, from the third grade on, she decided to dedicate her life to her artistic passions. The mixed-media artist hails from upstate New York, but has been established in the Lehigh Valley for nearly 20 years. Perhamus received her…
“On the Road & In the Round: Songwriters & Story Tellers” with Thom Schuyler, Craig Bickhardt, Jack Sundrud, and Jack Murray was held at Godfrey Daniels on Friday, March 24th. The men have been coming to Bethlehem for over five years to play together. The camaraderie and rapport between the musicians were infectious as they…