Platinum-selling and Grammy-nominated singer and actor Chris Isaak will perform at the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown on Tuesday, July 26 at 8 p.m. A concert favorite over the last three decades, Isaak is known for timeless songs like “Wicked Game,” “Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing,” “Somebody’s Crying,” and more. Ticket prices start at $59 per person. more
Considered to be the top aquarium in the Northeast, Camden’s Adventure Aquarium is a premier and scientifically sound facility where children can interact with aquatic creatures in a whole new way.
Over 15,000 animals are located on site, including endangered penguin and shark species, sea turtles, and coral reef (among others). Special attractions like the Little Blue Penguins, Nile Hippos, the Shark Bridge, Shark Tunnel, and touch tanks will leave lasting memories. From the Great Hammerhead Shark (the largest of its species) to the Giant Pacific Octopus, there is so much to see and learn. more
Summer is the perfect time to address that pile of books lingering on your bedside table. These recommended titles from New York Public Library are being made into feature films set to arrive in theaters this summer. Our suggestion — read the literary form before you see it on the big screen. It’s a wonderful way to put your imagination to the test and see how your own interpretation matches up to Hollywood’s. more
Located along the Delaware River in New Hope, Pa., Solebury School’s Summer Day Camp is a great option to keep kids busy, healthy, and having fun throughout the warmer months.
Campers are overseen by a dedicated and highly trained staff that enjoys spending each day outdoors as much as the kids. Solebury also prides itself on being a confidence building setting where children can express themselves, test new skills, and improve already established skills like swimming, theater, and a variety of sports. more
Raritan Valley Road Runners Race Series returns on Tuesdays — June 28, July 12, and July 26. The races all begin at 6:30 p.m., making for a fun evening spent outdoors. The races traverse mostly grass and dirt terrain with long stretches along the scenic Raritan River. There will also be a Youth Series each evening beginning at 5:30 p.m. Registration for the Youth Series opens at 5 p.m. more
The Hudson Shakespeare Company presents the second of the summer’s two Shakespeare in the Park performances at the Community Park North/Pettoranello Gardens Amphitheater on Sunday, July 31 from 6 to 8 p.m.
Under the leadership of Artistic Director Jon Ciccarelli, the Hudson Shakespeare Company is known for utilizing some of the best young and experienced actors, directors, and crew from around the tri-state area. Join them for a rockin’ summer party set in the sixties with Much Ado About Nothing, where revenge is put aside in favor of forgiveness. more
Essex County features one of the top treetop adventure courses in the state at Turtle Back Zoo in West Orange. Summer is the perfect time to book a reservation at this park with thrill-seeking friends and loved ones. The sky high courses emphasize trust building, fun, excitement, and collaborations. They also leave one with a greater sense of accomplishment by looking trepidation in the face and overcoming it. more
Image Source: https://www.zuzu-gallery.com
Located in the heart of historic downtown Lawrenceville, Zuzu Gallery will host a summer opening to celebrate the works of award-winning artist Sherri Andrews on Saturday, July 2 from 2 to 6 p.m. Stop in for food, drinks, chat with the artist and view her mixed media paintings and collages.
Located at 23 Phillips Avenue (next to Vidalia Restaurant), Zuzu Gallery occupies a charming cedar storefront originally built in 1890. The location plays host to invited artists working in a variety of media, such as painting, pottery, sculpture, and photography. more
Join Longwood Gardens on the second Friday of every month throughout Light: Installations by Bruce Munro for a fantastically fun themed Light Nights. Enjoy live music, fountain performances, family activities, and more — all inspired by Light — during these special evenings. more
Hoboken native Brad Finkel never set out to enter the food business. In fact, back in the 1990s, he was more interested in touring the country with his musical group, trying to make an impact in the world as a working artist.
However, when Finkel left Hudson County, he noticed that his fellow bandmates were homesick for fresh mozzarella, meats, homemade bread, and tomato sauce like the Italian Grandma’s made it. That meant nothing but the freshest ingredients and no additives like sugar. Nothing is dried and everything is bottled at the peak of freshness. In this way, Finkel sought to make his friends a little more comfortable. more
Get ready for a fun-filled day outdoors that is all about Dad, yet great for the whole family, too. It’s Father’s Day Weekend 2022 at Six Flags Hurricane Harbor on Saturday and Sunday, June 18 and 19 in Jackson Township.
Swim, surf, dive, and slide your way into an exciting summer as your roam around Hurricane Harbor’s many slides and pools. After working up an appetite, take a seat at Steak & Fries or at the Tiki Bar to enjoy some fun drinks and savory snacks. more
Summer in Atlantic City attracts world-class stars and entertainers, and this year is no different. In fact, there is something for everyone’s taste. Browse this sampled June calendar of event listings below and book your tickets today!
Thursday, June 9 – Sunday, September 4
Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City more
Ethan Stiefel and Gillian Murphy Bring Their Expertise to American Repertory Ballet
By Anne Levin
Photography by Andrew Wilkinson
The first time Ethan Stiefel was approached about becoming artistic director of American Repertory Ballet (ARB), he wasn’t sure it was the right move for him. The Princeton and New Brunswick-based company had already performed a piece that the former star dancer had choreographed, and he felt a rapport with its dancers. But becoming their artistic leader was another matter.
“I was happy where I was,” said Stiefel, who at the time was coaching and teaching at American Ballet Theatre (ABT), the company from which he had retired a few years before. Stiefel’s wife Gillian Murphy was, and still is, a principal dancer with ABT, and one of its most enduring stars. Most importantly, they had a baby on the way. It seemed wise to stay put.
By the time ARB executive director Julie Diana Hench posed the question again, it was four months into COVID-19. The couple had sold their New York apartment, pre-pandemic, and were riding it out in a cabin in northeastern Pennsylvania. They weren’t sure when, and if, life would ever get back to normal and they’d be able to pick up where they left off.
Has spring finally sprung?
March came in as the lion it is supposed to be but, judging by the chilly and rainy weather, the lion was still with us at the end of April and into May … as was inflation, a volatile stock market, an ineffective Washington, and the horrible war in Ukraine. Wouldn’t you just love to curl up with this June issue of your magazine and read all about uplifting things?
Well, before you do that, you must read Donald Gilpin’s Q&A with Ekaterina Pravilova — Princeton University professor of history and acting director of the PU Program in Russian, Eastern European, and Eurasian Studies — on the situation in Ukraine and Russia, including her contemporary responses and her view through the lens of history.
When I see the journalists report on what is happening in Ukraine, I have to admire the bravery of those reporters, as I do the bravery of all journalists reporting from the sites of violence all over the world. You will get some interesting perspectives on journalism from Ilene Dube’s visit with Uganda-born Razia Iqbal, a visiting lecturer in the Princeton University Humanities Council as Ferris Professor of Journalism. She is best known worldwide as an anchor on Newshour, BBC’s World Service program. You may have heard Ms. Iqbal on Philadelphia’s WHYY 9am broadcast of the BBC Newshour every weekday.
Photo courtesy of Princeton University Office of Communications
Interview by Donald Gilpin
Princeton University History Professor Ekaterina Pravilova holds the Rosengarten Chair of Modern and Contemporary History and is the acting director of the Princeton University Program in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies. A native of St. Petersburg, Russia, she received her Ph.D. from the Russian Academy of Sciences. She came to Princeton University to join the faculty in 2006.
We spoke on April 4, about six weeks after the Russian invasion and start of the war in Ukraine. News and photos had just come out revealing the mass killing of civilians in the Ukrainian city of Bucha.
By Ilene Dube
“The role of media — the reason journalism exists — is to consistently pull back the curtain and show how the government or executive or business or legislative body works…. Journalism is not a crime — it’s a job, and a really important one.”
—BBC Host Razia Iqbal and visiting lecturer/Ferris Professor of Journalism, Princeton University
Razia Iqbal’s voice used to be one of the first I heard in the morning. I had come to rely on her thorough and accurate coverage of world affairs, broadcast while many on the East Coast are brewing our morning joe or heading off to work. As anchor of BBC World Service’s Newshour — a current affairs program with 12.5 million listeners in the U.S. and millions more worldwide — she is never afraid to ask the tough questions. And to ask them again and again, rephrasing, peeling away the layers.
Through the radio waves you can almost feel her interviewees squirm.
Bonding with Art, Books, and Children
By Stuart Mitchner
After a visit to the Princeton Public Library in search of art therapy books for children, I came home with an armload, including one seemingly intended for serious, thinking adults, Alain de Botton and John Armstrong’s heavily illustrated tome, Art as Therapy (Phaidon 2013, paperback 2016). In fact, some reviewers treated both book and audience disparagingly. Elle called it a “cultural cure for what ails you” while Vanity Fair on Art gave it credit for massaging “the mind in all the right places.” Taking it to task in the New York Times (“Patronizing the Arts”), Parul Sehgal chided the authors for dreaming of the day “when museums can be redesigned as gyms for the psyche.” Sehgal also included an illustration from the book, a museum floor plan arranged according to therapeutic needs. Above the cafe and shop are five floors, the first a Gallery of Suffering, followed in ascending order by galleries of Compassion, Fear, Love, and Self-Knowledge. As Sehgal noted, de Botton had been accused of condescending to his readers, regarding them as “ants,” or more to my point, as children, as if this weighty book were little more than a child’s guide to art therapy on steroids.
Elizabeth Coleman White’s Agricultural Impact More than a Century Later
By Wendy Greenberg
Photos courtesy of Whitesbog Preservation Trust
When New Lisbon’s Elizabeth Coleman White studied the blueberry more than 100 years ago, she probably didn’t envision a booming blueberry business in New Jersey, or the state’s reputation as Blueberry Capital of the World. White, in 1916, developed a hybrid blueberry that could be grown in the acidic soil of the Pine Barrens, and she became known as the Blueberry Queen for producing the first cultivated crop of blueberries in the United States. more
Marjory Gengler, 1973.
A Comprehensive Book Looks Back
By Justin Feil | Images courtesy of David Benjamin, A History of Princeton Tennis
David Benjamin always had an appreciation for history.
Before he gained attention as men’s tennis coach at Princeton University and executive director of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA), Benjamin taught American studies at Harvard University and Princeton University. He recognized as an undergraduate opponent at Harvard the rich and respected history of the Princeton men’s tennis program and was thrilled to join the program as their 29-year-old men’s tennis coach in 1974.
“When I came, Princeton had a very special history,” said Benjamin. “I felt it was a shame there wasn’t any sort of story or record of Princeton tennis.”
Following his retirement from coaching and the ITA, Benjamin, in his increased spare time, pursued the project and encouraged the Princeton men’s and women’s programs to chronicle their years in a book. Commissioned by The Friends of Princeton Tennis, A History of Princeton Tennis, a 378-page leatherbound book by Rob Dinerman and co-edited by Benjamin and Cameron Stout, was released in April 2021.
“The feedback has been great,” said Benjamin. “It’s something that everyone is very, very happy about.” more
