The FAR TRIO: Friday at The Buttonwood Tree

Friday
July 29. 
8 -10 pm.

The Far Trio is a New York City and Buffalo based band featuring Eamon Rahyn  (vocal/bass), Drew Azzinaro (guitar) and Ethan Fox (drums). 

The Trio brings together Eamon’s soul-filled vocals and bass, Drew’s guitar journeys and Ethan’s worldly grooves.

The Trio has been concentrating on writing original music as well as developing creative arrangements of some of their personal favorites from John Lennon to Michael Brecker. The Trio strives to present soulful songwriting through an improvisatory jazz lens. Previous venues include The Northwest Jazz Festival, Carnegie Jazz Festival, So Far Sounds, Rockwood Music Hall, The Bitter End and countless others. 

O come on, listen now! These guys have just got. the. groove!   

 

https://youtu.be/vooncpCXvjk

HERE to reserve your seat ($15).

From JAZZ at LINCOLN Center — The SARAH HANAHAN JAZZ Quartet

Sponsored by JAZZ at Lincoln Center.
https://2022.jazz.org

Tomorrow night              

Friday, July 22

8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

 LIVE!  at
THE BUTTONWOOD TREE

   The
Sarah Hanahan
Jazz Quartet

   Sarah Hanahan is an up-and-coming jazz saxophonist currently pursuing her master’s degree in Jazz Performance at The Juilliard School in New York City. 

   In 2015, she was awarded a full scholarship to study jazz performance at the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz within the Hartt School of Music (University of Hartford). Her college professors include well-known jazz saxophone performers Javon Jackson and Abraham Burton.

   By 2020, Sarah was pursuing her master’s degree at the prestigious Juilliard School in New York City and started making a name for herself in the New York City Jazz Scene, and her career has only been gaining more attention and momentum since then.  

   Recently, Sarah has been working with renowned musicians like Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ulysses Owens Jr. and Generation Y, The Mingus Big Band, Sherrie Miracle and the Diva Orchestra, Steve Davis, Nat Reeves, Barry Stephenson, Jason Moran, and Emmet Cohen. And she's been playing with her own Quartet and with other bands, too, in venues around NYC -- Smalls Jazz Club, Dizzy’s Club, the Harlem Jazz Museum, Times Square Jazz series, The Django; in the Central Park Keyed Up series, at the Side Door Jazz Club in Old Lyme, CT, and many others. 

   Sarah is currently touring Worldwide with her quartet and plans to record and release her first debut album by the end of this year. This special performance at The Buttonwood Tree is sponsored by Jazz at Lincoln Center. It's not to be missed!

The Buttonwood Tree Performing Arts Center  is located at 605 Main Street, 
Middletown, CT + Google Map.  Phone:  (860) 347-4957

Click the dot for the Sarah Hanahan Jazz Quartet Facebook page.  

Miki Yamanaka, Piano

  C

Sarah Hanahan JAZZ Quartet members include

Sarah Hanahan, Saxophone
Jonathan Barber, Drums
Barry Stephenson, Bass
Miki Yamanaka, Piano

Click HERE to reserve your seat.

34th Annual Children's Circus of Middletown Performance

Children's Circus Goes Viral!

August 5th at 5:00pm

Macdonough School

66 Spring St.

Middletown, CT

The Middletown Commission on the Arts and Oddfellows Playhouse presents the 34th Children’s Circus

of Middletown: CHILDREN’S CIRCUS GOES VIRAL!

This annual, unique show will take place August 5th at 5PM. In case of rain, the performance will take

place August 6th at 5PM. The performance will be held outside at Macdonough School,

66 Spring St. Middletown, CT. 

This performance is the culmination of a 5 week day camp for 160 kids ages 5 - 15, in which they work

with professional circus artists to learn juggling, stilting, unicycling, dance, balance, acrobatics and

other circus skills. The annual performance includes the 160 youth performers, 40 staff and a live circus

band of 15 adults and teenagers. The Children's Circus of Middletown has been an annual collaboration

between Oddfellows Playhouse Youth Theater and the Middletown Commission on the Arts since 1989.

In 2018 the Children's Circus was awarded the NY Life Foundation's Excellence in Summer Learning

Award.

Children’s Circus director Jason Leinwand lays out the scenario for this year’s circus:“This year the Children's Circus of Middletown Goes Viral. Our unparalleled team of influencers have

cracked the algorithm and plan to deliver the most hyped, most "liked" and most viral circus ever!

We'll dive deep into social media to explore all that trends! See Jugglers fight a computer virus!

Witness the acrobats attempt to create the greatest FAIL video of all time! Marvel at the epic unboxing

adventure of the unicyclists! How many views can we get?!?! Like and subscribe and be sure to leave

comments below!”

Tickets are available the day of performance; $8 for adults and $5 for kids. Please call to reserve

wheelchair seating. Bring lawn chairs or blankets and a picnic. Street parking around the neighborhood.

Handicapped & Elderly parking only in the school lot.

The Children’s Circus is part of the Kids Arts Program of the City of Middletown’s Office of the Arts

and Culture and is directed and produced by Oddfellows Playhouse. Major support is provided by the

United Way of Middlesex County, the Middletown Commission on the Arts,  the Middletown Public

Schools,  the Evan Boyd Knoll Memorial Circus Fund, and the M. Jones Fund at the Community

Foundation of Middlesex County. Oddfellows is also supported by the Connecticut Office of the

Arts/DECD, The Stare Fund, The State of Connecticut Judicial Branch, The Fund for Greater Hartford,

Community Foundation of Middlesex County, American Savings Foundation,  Middletown Youth

Services Bureau, Maximilian E. and Marion O. Hoffman Foundation, CHEFA Cultural Relief Grant,

New England Foundation for the Arts/New England Arts Resilience Fund, George & Grace Long

Foundation, and many generous individual donors.

Oddfellows Playhouse offers year-round programs in theater, circus, music, dance, technical theater,

and visual arts to young people ages 3-20. For additional information, contact info@oddfellows.org,

call (860) 347-6143 or go to www.oddfellows.org.

This Week at The Buttonwood Tree: July 21 - July 23, 2022

 

The Buttonwood Tree 
605 Main Street, in Middletown

July 2022

The Buttonwood Tree Presents:

Event descriptions are excerpted from The Buttonwood Tree online calendar. Click on event links in text for more information. 

 

 

 

Thursday
JUL 21

6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

Drum Circle

          Facilitated by Scotty Giffen. Circle will be held at the CHC Green.

7:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Bob Gotta's Acoustic Open Mic (ZOOM)

 

Friday

JUL 22

  8:00 pm - 10:00 pm  

The Sara Hanahan Jazz Quartet

The performers will be:

Sarah Hanahan, Saxophone
Jonathan Barber, Drums
Barry Stephenson, Bass
Miki Yamanaka, Piano

Sarah Hanahan is an up-and-coming jazz saxophonist in New York City currently pursuing her master’s degree in Jazz Performance at The Juilliard School. In 2015, Sarah was awarded a full scholarship to study jazz performance at the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz within the Hartt School of Music (University of Hartford). Her college professors include well-known jazz saxophone performers Javon Jackson and Abraham Burton.

 

This event is sponsored by Jazz at Lincoln Center. https://2022.jazz.org/ 

 

Saturday

JUL 23

 10:30 am - 12:15 pm

Align with Source Workshop

 

 

 

  8:00 pm - 10:00 pm  

Mike Borgia - Live in Concert

A New York native singer songwriter celebrating 3 decades of music. With over 19 albums, national touring and a musical style often compared to artists like Chris Cornell (Soundgarden) and Gary Clark Jr. Known for his robust 5 octave vocal range that crosses between genres of blues, rock and folk nuances. Lyrically poetic and heartfelt with true to life stories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more information on Buttonwood programs, please see our calendar here.

 

Godfrey Memorial Library Wins First Prize for Manumissions Project

Press Release (July 11, 2022)

The Godfrey Memorial Library won first prize in the SLAM! video category for its Manumissions Project.  Carol Ansel, Executive Director of the Godfrey, accepted the prize – $250 and one year of access to VIVID-PIX commercial software – at the SLAM! Idea Showcase held at the national conference of the National Genealogical Society (NGS) in Sacramento, CA in May 2022.

Each year the NGS holds a competition for innovative genealogy and family history projects or programs by societies, libraries, archives, and museums (SLAM).  The projects and programs are designed to assist librarians and others who serve genealogists. 

Located in Middletown, CT, the Godfrey is a member-based, private library specializing in genealogy and local history.  The library was founded in 1947 by Fremont Rider, then Director of the Olin Library at Wesleyan University.  The building opened to the public in 1951.

In 2020 and 2021, staff and volunteers at the Godfrey Memorial Library worked to create a searchable online database about slavery and manumissions (the freeing of enslaved people) in Middletown.  All the information was extracted from the city’s land records, which are digitized and available on the FamilySearch.org website.  Ansel noted that other manumissions may possibly be found in court records, but they are outside the scope of the library’s project.  The earliest manumission found in the Middletown land records was in 1774, while the latest one was in 1823.  In total, over 50 manumissions were found.  The new database provides a transcription and digital image of each record.  In 1848, Connecticut passed legislation that banned and abolished slavery. 

The use of the manumissions database is open to the public, free of charge.  For access, go to the library’s website at www.godfrey.org, click on Search Scholar Databases, click on Register or Renew to fill out the form as a guest, then navigate to the People of Color database to begin your search.  To browse the database, click on People of Color > Connecticut > Middletown Slavery > Middletown Manumissions.  Call the library at 860-346-4375 for additional assistance.

This Week at The Buttonwood Tree: July 14 - July 16, 2022

 

The Buttonwood Tree 
605 Main Street, in Middletown

July 2022

The Buttonwood Tree Presents:

Event descriptions are excerpted from The Buttonwood Tree online calendar. Click on event links in text for more information. 

 

 

 

Thursday
JUL 14

7:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Bob Gotta's Acoustic Open Mic (ZOOM)

 

Friday

JUL 15

  7:00 pm - 8:30 pm  

Poetry Contest Awards Reception

After the awards presentation we will hold a free open mic for poets hosted by Naji Chester Payne. He is the poet laureate for the town of Portland and is the inspiration behind this contest.
 

Free to attend, all ages are welcome. Come share your words with others!

This free event is sponsored by the Susan D.E. Allison Fund at the Community Foundation of Middlesex County.

 

 

Saturday

JUL 16

 10:30 am - 12:15 pm

Align with Source Workshop

 

 

 

  8:00 pm - 10:00 pm  

Rosemary Minkler

CT born and raised pianist and producer rewards showcases her diverse abilities as a performer.

 

The performers will be:
Rosemary Minkler – keyboard & vocals
Jeff Moro – bass
Isaac Monts – drums

 

 

 

 

 

For more information on Buttonwood programs, please see our calendar here.

 

Lesson in Responsibility for Living in a Democracy: Don't forget to VOTE!

From the NY Times 7/11/22.

One Small Step for Democracy
in a 'Live Free or Die' Town

A cautionary tale from Croydon, N.H., where one man tried to foist a change so drastic it jolted a community out of political indifference.

Dan Barry

From The New York Times, Mon, July 11, 2022 at 7:41 AM

One Small Step for Democracy in a ‘Live Free or Die’ Town

Croydon town meeting in March began as fairly routine.
It didn’t end that way.Credit...J. M. Patterson/Valley News

“Showing up. That’s the big lesson,” said Chris Prost, 37, a Croydon resident who runs a small brewery from a barn at the back of his house. “And not just showing up, but also knowing what’s going on.”