For one weekend in August, Mansfield, Ohio is about to come alive with a celebration like no other. This summer marks the 30th anniversary of “The Shawshank Redemption,” the film ranked as the number one movie of all time by IMDb. The film’s profound story of hope and resilience continues to resonate, making this milestone a perfect reason to visit the picturesque towns of Mansfield.
Southwest Virginia, the section of the Commonwealth bordering West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, is home to some of the richest American music heritage in the United States. Rocky Mount is 165 miles east of the state capital, Richmond, but the town of 5,000 residents marks the eastern terminus of The Crooked Road.
It is the end of a multi-month run of a show at Sight & Sound Theatres. The “install and logistics team” loads a convoy of tractor-trailers to make a 1,000-mile trek to Branson, Missouri, where the show will live on at the theatre’s second location. More than 60 truckloads of sets, equipment and costumes will make their way from Lancaster to a new home in the Ozarks over the next six months.
I never expected to “get into” genealogy. I had a pretty good grasp on my heritage … I thought. Then a genealogy librarian at the Allen County Public Library in Indiana handed me a large three-ring binder, my full name emblazoned across the front. I cracked it open, took a quick overview, and landed on some names I did not recognize. And my jaw dropped, literally.
Trains became synonymous with Christmas as a means of travel during the Golden Age of railroading.
Over coffee, on a sunny day in the city, two writers speak of the beauty of Lancaster’s architecture. I am chatting with architect turned author, Gregg Scott, about Cassius Emlen Urban. And I am discovering how deep another writer will dig to unearth a story with veins touching almost everyone who strides upon the Red Rose city’s sidewalks.
The amount of people reconnecting with nature is growing and the popularity of tent camping has been on the rise for years. According to the North American Camping Report by Kampgrounds of America, the percentage of campers who camp three or more times each year has increased 72 percent since 2014. The most avid of this group are families with young children. And the most popular mode of shelter is the tent.
From hometowns across the USA to fields in Uganda and the UAE, baseball has gone beyond being “America’s pastime.”
Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s fleeting tenure as a West Point cadet in 1830, novelist Louis Bayard wondered, “What the hell was this poet doing in this regimented, orderly, military environment?” Bayard’s 2003 novel, The Pale Blue Eye, puts the young Poe at the center of a series of grisly cadet murders, as he helps the lead detective unravel the case.
Edward Babiarz dips his hand into a 10-gallon bucket filled with a bright-red slurry. It is almost comforting to watch the texture move as his hand becomes the agitator. He cups a small handful of what looks like liquid but with a squeeze of his fingers against his palm it transforms, and he hands me soft, tepid and malleable pulp. This is the moment his art takes shape.
