On the ballot in November: whether to review Red Bank’s form of government, and who should do it. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
It’s official: Red Bank voters will have 11 candidates to choose from when they elect a five-member charter study commission in November.
Also on the ballot: a referendum on whether the study itself should be conducted.
Mike DuPont, right, riding with law partner and former mayor Ed McKenna in the Red Bank centennial parade in 2008. (Photo by John T. Ward and Chris Ern. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
UPDATE: After publication of this article, redbankgreen learned that John Jackson filed a petition with the borough clerk for a candidacy Tuesday afternoon. This update also adds John Gosden as a resident known to be gathering petition signatures.
Former Red Bank councilman Michael DuPont has made the November election for charter study commission a race.
DuPont told redbankgreen he filed his candidacy petition Wednesday morning, making him the sixth declared candidate for a seat on a five-member body.
Running as a team, clockwise from upper left: Nancy Facey-Blackwood, Mark Taylor, Kate Okeson, Scott Broschart and Ben Forest. (Photos by John T. Ward and Chris Ern. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Five self-described “forward-thinking” Red Bank activists have united in pursuit of seats on Red Bank’s charter study commission in the November election.
A customer checks her email at one of the new seating areas at Coffee Corral. (Photo by Chris Ern. Click to enlarge.)
By CHRIS ERN
It’s a warm summer night as Jessica Olszewski relaxes in an Adirondack chair while her wife and young daughter dance to live jazz under glimmering lights outside the Coffee Corral in in Red Bank.
A new, post-pandemic vibe has captured the attention of locals at the busy corner of Shrewsbury Avenue and Drs. James Parker Boulevard. There, owners Courtlyn Crosson and Erich Reulbach have developed their business into what Reulbach said is now “more than just a coffee shop on the corner.”
“It’s family-friendly. I have my wife and daughter here, and she’s able to run around and enjoy the live music,” says Olszewski, of Tinton Falls. “It’s a lot of what we couldn’t do for so long.”
Michael Clancy, center, at the Red Bank Middle School in 2015. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank Republican Chairman Michael Clancy resigned from the borough Human Relations Advisory Committee Thursday night, continuing to disavow a text message that the committee’s chairman had termed “extremely threatening” to immigrant children.
Author, performer and internationally renowned internet celebrity Sam Killermann gave a well-received presentation on Gender Identity to the Red Bank Regional student body during the Week of Respect.
Press release from Red Bank Regional High School
In observance of the recent Week of Respect, Red Bank Regional High School partnered with makeitbetter4youth.org to bring a special multi-disciplinary artist to RBR for a an engaging and insightful presentation on the topic of Gender Identity.
Samuel (Sam) Killermann is an author, performer and internationally renowned internet celebrity on matters of social justice. Students from Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School’s Gay Straight Alliance, as well as the Collier School, were also invited to the presentation.
Mr. Killermann explained to his audience that his fascination with gender had personal roots which crystallized in college, when he learned that his prospective girlfriend assumed that he (a heterosexual male) was gay. This misperception of his sexual identity seemed to occur often in college; so he sought counsel at the college’s LGBTQ center. He was told that people were confusing his sexuality for the way he expressed his gender.
Recycled-materials sculptures by Lisa Bagwell are among the art works featured during the Zero Waste Arts Fest, going on September 17 and 18 at Fort Hancock on Sandy Hook.
Press release from Monmouth County Arts Council
On Saturday, September 17 and Sunday, September 18, the Monmouth County Arts Council invites the public to take part in a weekend of free family fun — in which the arts intersect with the wonders of our local environment — during the inaugural Zero Waste Arts Fest (ZWAF).
Going on from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the historic Fort Hancock area of Sandy Hook, ZWAF represents a partnership between Monmouth Arts and Gateway National Recreation Area Sandy Hook Unit. The event also marks the culminating phase of a larger Gateway to the Arts grant project, a $20,000 award that Monmouth Arts received from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in 2016, to honor both the 50th anniversary of the NEA and the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service.
Clockwise from top left: Seen during the recent “Night of the Arts” at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional were freshman Julia Wagner with her 1st Place-winning pastel; junior Max Taffin with his 2nd Place winning sculpture; senior Lauren Mueller painting into a design she created on wood; senior John Esposito demonstrating his illustration technique.
Press release from Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School
On the evening of May 28, the annual “RFH Night of the Arts” spotlighting the spring concert and student art exhibit took place at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School. This year’s event featured artwork and musical performances by RFH students who were honored at the Monmouth County Teen Arts Festival, held this past March at Brookdale Community College.
Attendees at “RFH Night of the Arts” enjoyed the spring concert including performances by the school’s Concert Band, Jazz Orchestra, Chorus, and String Ensemble, as well as solo acts. The RFH Jazz Choir performed for the opening of the Teen Arts Festival, while the Jazz Orchestra received the prized “Top of the Top” designation for the third consecutive year. Based on their performance, a jazz ensemble comprised of RFH students including Paddy Ahimovic and Christopher Fahey was invited to perform at the Monmouth County Art Education Awards ceremony, and RFH art students Taylor Blewett, Becca Ley, and Lauren Mueller were named “Top of the Top” in visual arts.
A group of students from Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School — including Katie Eskwitt, John Esposito, Katherine Hill, Campbell Lee, and Julia Mosby — recently learned the stories behind the artwork and architecture of the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York City. During the January 15 tour led by the Cathedral’s Docent, the group climbed more than 124 feet through spiral staircases in order to reach the top of the Cathedral, the largest in the U.S. and fourth-largest in the world. Among the highlights were discovering facts about the stained glass windows and sculpture, studying the grand architecture of the Cathedral while standing on a buttress, and enjoying the rooftop view of Manhattan. The students were accompanied by their Advanced Placement (AP) Art History teacher Kate Okeson for the excursion, in which they also viewed a large-scale installation by Chinese contemporary artist Xu Bing.
A selfie by Bob McKay is among the works on display in the group show FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE opening Friday at Gallery 135 in Red Bank.
Leave it to Gerda Liebmann – the Swiss-born, internationally exhibited multimedia artist (and redbankgreen Clippings correspondent) – to discern the beauty in so tawdry a device as the cellphone selfie.
Liebmann, who established Gallery 135 in the second-floor space shared by Red Bank Community Church, has employed this maybe-misunderstood signifier of 21st century life – and its cousin in succinct cinema, the Vine – as the basis for her new group show, Fearfully and Wonderfully Made. Opening with a reception at 7 pm on Friday, the multimedia installation “will give viewers the opportunity to reconnect with the special intimacy and self-revelation that self-portraits uniquely offer,” she says.
In a local event recorded for the ABC program 20/20, RFH senior Kate Sherman recently participated in an open forum with former Rutgers basketball coach Mike Rice, who was fired from the program earlier this year for bullying behavior. (click to enlarge)
Press release from Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School
The Central Jersey Chapter of the Gay Straight and Lesbian Education Network (GLSEN) recently presented a unique opportunity to local students. GLSEN planned to host an open conversation between New Jersey students and former Rutgers basketball coach Mike Rice on November 9, with the forum taking place that morning at Hoops, a recreational basketball facility located in Neptune. The network TV news show 20/20 planned to air segments of the conversation.
Local GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance) Advisors were asked by GLSEN to put a clarion call out to their student members. One of these was art teacher Kate Okeson of Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School.
Would any of the students in her organization be willing to make the trip to Neptune and back, early on a Saturday morning, for the possibility of having a face to-face conversation with Rice?
As it turns out, she didn’t have to ask Kate Sherman twice.