The Envelope Please: And the Oscar goes to . . .

January 29, 2016 | by Sammi Leigh Melville

It’s that time of year again!

The line of patrons at cinemas everywhere has grown exponentially as avid moviegoers cross films off their lists in preparation of Oscar’s big night. And though the lineup of nominees is whitewashed across the board—unfortunately repeating last year’s failure to recognize artists of color—there are definitely some competitive categories that will stir up excitement in this year’s standings.

There are many who will say that Leonardo DiCaprio may finally win his first Oscar for Best Actor—it’s been joked about for years, but it’s finally time. However, DiCaprio has some tough competition with Bryan Cranston as Trumbo and Michael Fassbender as Steve Jobs. The fact that all three compete with biographical roles makes it an even tougher call, but my vote goes to Fassbender. While DiCaprio won a Golden Globe and certainly had the widest emotional range of the contenders, the Academy tends to lean towards actors whose roles serve as a departure—and Fassbender definitely falls into that category with such a transformation.

The Best Actress category has a much clearer outcome. Though the other performances pack a punch, none quite sticks in your mind like Brie Larson’s heartbreaking role in “Room.” We’ve seen her rising in the indie world through the past few years, and she’s finally found the role that will get her some Oscar love. Though Cate Blanchett and Jennifer Lawrence certainly deserve nods for their performances in “Carol” and “Joy,” respectively, it’s an indisputable win for Larson.

This year’s supporting nominees are something of an oddity, as many of the films have a pretty evenly distributed ensemble cast, and, in several nominations, the role in mind is actually the protagonist (Rooney Mara in “Carol” and Alicia Vikander in “The Danish Girl”). Despite these quirks, the winners are still pretty clear.

Tom Hardy has the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor with his performance in “The Revenant.” In his usual transformative way, he is nearly unrecognizable as the ornery money-grubber and antagonist, John Fitzgerald. And it is a no brainer that Alicia Vikander will win Best Supporting Actress. While it is true that Kate Winslet’s persistent strength in “Steve Jobs” won her this year’s Golden Globe, this is another example of the difference in personality between the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and the Academy. Vikander’s immersion into her character will sway the decision in the end.

For this year’s Best Director, there is not a question in my mind that Alejandro González Iñárritu will win it for the second year in a row. Last year, he took the Oscar for “Birdman,” and, in my mind, it was always a given that his next film would either equal his prior effort or collapse to the status of a disappointment. The technical proficiency and artistic orchestration of “The Revenant” makes Iñárritu the obvious choice for this award.

The Best Picture category is always the hardest, but, this year, the two strongest contenders are “The Revenant” and “Spotlight.” It’s hard to even compare the two, as they are at opposite ends of the spectrum. While “The Revenant” deals out brute emotion and focuses centrally on the visual, “Spotlight” delves into more complex emotions and focuses on story. Despite the sheer number of nominations that “The Revenant” racked up, my gut instinct tells me that “Spotlight” will still win the prize. I believe 2016 will harken to 2014, when Best Picture and Best Director didn’t line up (“12 Years a Slave” and “Gravity”).

But only time will tell. And let’s be honest, what fun would the Oscars be if we weren’t kept on our toes? Anticipation is the Academy’s best friend, and you can count on them milking it all the way until Feb. 28.

Midtown Cinema
February Special Events

Midnight Matinee
“A Clockwork Orange”
Saturday, Feb. 6, 11:45 p.m.

Two Special Screenings of:
“The Notebook”
Hate it?
Friday, Feb. 12, 9:30 p.m.
with Down in Front! comedy riffing
Love it?
Saturday, Feb. 13, 8 p.m.

Classic Film Series
“Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”
Sunday, Feb. 14, 6 p.m.

3^rd in the Burg $3 Movie
“When Harry Met Sally”
Friday, Feb. 19, 9:30 p.m.

Faulkner Honda Family Film Series
“Dennis the Menace”
Saturday, Feb. 20, 12 p.m.
Sunday, Feb. 21, 2 p.m.

15^th Anniversary Series
“Lost in Translation”
Saturday, Feb. 27, 8 p.m.

Oscar Party
Sunday, Feb. 28, 7 p.m.

Master of Words: Nathaniel Gadsden builds his legacy one poem, one person, at a time.

January 29, 2016 | by M. Diane McCormick

Nathaniel Gadsden’s Writers Wordshop attendance is small this night. It’s the first Friday after the holidays. Three people have come out in the cold to join Nate Gadsden at Midtown Scholar Bookstore.

When it’s time to share thoughts and readings, Wordshop veteran Diana Carel-Diaz produces a creased, browned sheet that may have once been legal paper. “We love dogs, but we have cats,” she says in introduction. “I just pulled this out after I don’t know how many years.”

She begins to read amid book-lined shelves of contemporary fiction, the works of Terry McMillan and Walter Mosley behind her. Her voice twinkles with mischief. Her words sparkle, capturing centuries of feline mystery. “Slippery, skittish, fawnish thing, incarnate king with wit and sting/slender, impertinent little slip, impervious, quicksilver wit,” she reads.

“Obstinate, obstreperous and loud/cruel, treacherous and proud, the disappearance causing grief was, like yourself, beyond belief,” she continues. “What mercurial unjust thief could turn your substance into air, transfer you to an unseen lair? Your presence still is everywhere.”

Since 1977, Writers Wordshop has hosted words expressed in poetry, prose, song and stories about family, friends and whatever may have happened that day. Gadsden is the founder and driving force who has turned the power of the written and spoken word into a means for change and self-fulfillment.

Power and Impact

Gadsden is a Harrisburg native—a William Penn High School Tiger, he notes proudly. He discovered poetry in 1968, when his basketball coach ordered the players to stay away from racial unrest roiling the city. The coach brought in the Rev. Belgium Baxter, who talked of peace and broke out in poetry.

“I was so impressed with the power and the impact that I started writing myself,” says Gadsden.

Though he believed in the “quote-unquote revolution,” he chose the peaceful path of Martin Luther King Jr. and “was never a person that would get out there and throw Molotov cocktails.”

“I wanted to be a person who spoke about the issues,” says Gadsden.

At what was then West Chester State College, Gadsden delved into the poetry scene. Coming home to Harrisburg after graduation, he got involved with Mim Warden and The People Place, now the arts facilitator Jump Street. They got a national grant to bring giant names in poetry to little, ole Harrisburg—Amiri Baraka, E. Ethelbert Miller, Gwendolyn Brooks.

They also embarked on something homegrown to encourage the aspirations of writers. A typo by Warden turned “workshop” into “wordshop.” They added Nate’s name to distinguish it from other “wordshops” in the United States, and Nathaniel Gadsden’s Writers Wordshop was born.

The wordshop has been in different spaces citywide over the years. Its current home, every Friday of the month except 3^rd in the Burg day, is Midtown Scholar. Five special programs are held at the Pennsylvania State Museum yearly.

Gadsden also takes wordshop variations to other venues—a Harrisburg School District after-school program, county departments, state prisons. He shares poetry as therapy, because, in his life, amid the disappointment and rage of “discriminations, segregation, shootings, marches,” he has found solace in poetry.

“The poets allowed me to say it and feel it and at the same time not go to jail over it or kill anybody,” he says. “It gave release. It’s not just about bees and trees and the birds. It’s about real people.”

It’s Their Words

Gadsden is the kind of person likely, at any moment, to run into someone whose life he has touched.

During this interview, sitting in The Little Scholar section of Midtown Scholar, urban planner Tashya Dalen was at the next table with her children. She remembered Gadsden from a workshop for Harrisburg fifth-graders, when he took them walking along the river and encouraged them to share their stories.

“He has a presence with the children that they instantly wanted to hear him speak,” says Dalen. “There’s a profoundness in his words that they are eager to listen to more than, perhaps, other voices in their life.”

She turned to Gadsden. “I think they know you, know who you are,” she said. “You’re such a presence in the community.” Gadsden protests that he’s “the old guy now.” But Dalen insists that he’s respected.

“Because it’s poetry, you’re not lecturing them,” she says. “You’re not teaching in a linear way but engaging them through an art form.”

Gadsden concedes to that. “When you get them involved and engaged, it’s their words.”

Former York Poet Laureate Carla Christopher would agree. “Nate makes eye contact with everyone. Nate will reach out and touch everyone,” she says. “I don’t know how he’s still alive. The places he goes, he has put himself at risk so many times.”

At wordshop meetings, Gadsden “likes to welcome everybody,” says Christopher. “He takes the time to personally call each person out by name.” Under Gadsden’s guidance, Christopher transformed her own writing from issue-based to personal, sharing even the difficult experiences.

“Those are the ones I read with people with tears in my eyes,” she says. “I have had perfect strangers come up and hug me, and put their heads on my shoulder.”

Magic, Wonderment

A former poet laureate of Harrisburg, Gadsden has written poems for the opening of Whitaker Center and two Steve Reed mayoral inaugurations. He remembers driving while hearing Maya Angelou read her “On the Pulse of Morning” at Bill Clinton’s first inaugural and having to pull the car over. Poems commemorate occasions because “they capture our emotions, our fears, our moments of joy.”

“They are able to take us into our humanity as well as our imagination, just by crafting our conversation in a different way,” says Gadsden. “Poetry is nothing more than a thought, a conversation, a story, but said in a way that brings magic and wonderment to it.”

At the post-holidays Writers Wordshop, a newcomer named Billy asks if the wordshop is only for poets. Absolutely not, says Gadsden. Because, adds Billy, he writes about “what’s happening now.” Excellent, says Gadsden. “Stay in your lane, man, if you need to, and just do your thing.”

Gadsden is also pastor of Imani African Christian Church, co-host with his wife of the CBS21 public affairs show “Life Esteem,” and community impact manager at United Way of the Capital Region (yes, through all this, he has a day job).

Patricia Gadsden, Nate’s wife, is the founder of Life Esteem, a life skills consulting firm that employs Gadsden as a coach. The two, married for 21 years, complement each other with “the same kind of energy,” says Gadsden. “Pat’s a creator and a builder.”

Gadsden likes to look at issues from different perspectives, and he is contemplating a book that anthologizes his life’s poems, but rewritten and updated.

“You mature and grow,” he says. “I could leave those poems alone, but I think I’ll go back and rework them and see if I have the energy to make them better or make them different or more insightful.”

As the conversation ends, Gadsden mentions that he serves on the World Affairs Council of Harrisburg board, and you realize that, for a man who’s juggling so many positions, he exudes an aura of peace. People have marveled that he has kept the Writers Wordshop thriving for 38 years. He responds, “Yeah, but it didn’t feel like labor.”

“It’s felt like love,” he says. “It’s been a labor of love.”

To learn more about Nathaniel Gadsden, visit www.nathanielgadsden.com.

Up Through the Ranks: Dave Smith battled decades of racism to reach the top of the enlisted ranks.

January 29, 2016 | by Gina Napoli

Illustration by Ryan Spahr.

“When I was in the Navy aboard the submarine in the 1970s, I was a fly in the buttermilk.”

That’s how Master Chief (ret.) Dave Smith—employing the colorful language of his native South—describes his struggles as he rose through the ranks to become one of the first black master chief petty officers in the Navy, the highest rank for enlisted personnel.

Fortunately, Smith’s upbringing steeled him for the challenges ahead. He grew up in Selma, Ala., under what he describes as “very prejudicial conditions.” Despite the segregation around him, his parents always encouraged education, achievement and hard work, he said. Determined, he refused to let institutional and casual racism deter him from his goals.

“I took every opportunity offered to me, and that worked out for me,” he said.

Smith tells his life story humbly, without a trace of resentment. He shrugs off the most difficult portions of his life story by saying, “That’s just the way it was back then.”

Into the Sunlight

Like many black youth in the 1940s and ‘50s, Smith lived a rather itinerant life, splitting his time between his extended family in the city and the country, while also helping his father on the farm.

As a high school senior, he read encyclopedias in his spare time, often tutored his classmates and spent a lot of time in the one-room country library. While in Chicago with family, he also joined the swim team.

“I was a fancy diver,” he said. “It probably helped plant the seed for joining the Navy.”

If swimming planted the seed, a family member set it into the sunlight.

“My cousin came home from serving in the South Pacific,” Smith said. “He looked sharp in his white uniform, and he flashed six months’ worth of pay. All the girls liked him. He said I could spend 20 years in the Navy and retire on 50 percent of that pay. So I joined the Navy, too.”

Smith scored well on his tests, especially in electronics. He pounced on the opportunity to work on the computers that launched missiles.

“I didn’t know what a fire controlman was at first. I thought it was a fireman,” he said, referring to his job operating and maintaining weapons systems.

When he reported aboard his first submarine, he gave his orders to the topside watch, who said, “I never saw a black fire controlman. What’s this Navy coming to?”

Then, in 1962, thanks to his good test scores in boot camp, someone offered Smith the chance to become a submarine sailor. “It was an extra $55 a month, so I said yes,” he said.

He quickly discovered just how bad racism was in the Navy.

“Back then, they only assigned one black per submarine,” he said. “There was always the fear of conspiracy whenever two or more blacks got together. We used to joke that the only way we could get a good game of bid whist going was to pull four subs into dry dock.”

So, the ship’s complement was 125 white men and Smith.

“And the guys from the South had a way of letting you know they expected you to stay in your place,” he said.

Uphill Battle

Throughout his career, Smith took advantage of opportunities whenever he could. He went to the schools and took the training no one else wanted. Eventually, the ship’s chief allowed him a chance to take advantage of more popular classes.

Over the coming years, he began to rise through the ranks, but constantly had to deal with racist situations, which the chain of command did little to correct.

“Because of that, getting my men to take me seriously was an uphill battle,” he said.

Putting his love of reading into play, Smith became familiar with the Navy’s rulebooks. Soon, people were coming to him to ask how things operated. He also applied his love of learning to become a trainer for four years for the Polaris Mark 84 Polaris Missile System.

In 1978, Smith landed a job as a street recruiter and worked his way up to chief recruiter in 14 months, supervising 135 recruiters in central Pennsylvania.

“At the time I took over, the station was ranked last out of 41 in the nation,” he said. “We were able to improve the district to first place.”

In the early 1970s, Adm. Elmo Zumwalt Jr. took over as chief of naval operations, and the most overt racism began to abate. Awhile later, Smith became a rarity until that time—a black master chief petty officer, the Navy’s most senior enlisted member who serves as an adviser to the chief on issues of enlisted personnel.

With Smith’s advice and help, the Navy instituted a fairer promotional system, better distribution of minorities in the ranks and greater availability in the exchanges of products wanted and needed by black personnel.

Today, Smith holds a place of respect in the community, still serving and leading with presence and authority. He is a minister at Greater Zion Baptist Church and vice president of public relations at Toastmasters of Camp Curtin.

Smith recently met a fellow black master chief serving in Mechanicsburg.

“There was a time when blacks were not permitted to move into positions like that,” he said. “He thanked me for personally trailblazing through the enlisted ranks.”

Stories of a People: At Open Stage, authentic plays, authentic voices.

January 29, 2016 | by Leonard Dozier

“There are always only two trains running. There is life and there is death. Each of us rides them both.” – Playwright August Wilson (1945–2005)

When Open Stage of Harrisburg debuts its production of August Wilson’s “Two Trains Running” on Feb. 5, it will mark the professional theater’s sixth production of the acclaimed playwright’s 10-play series (also known as the “Century Cycle”).

Open Stage began telling the stories and struggles of African Americans in the early ‘90s, soon after its founding. With “Two Trains Running,” the theater continues a 24-year legacy of allowing African-American actors to tell stories of the African-American experience as written by African-American playwrights.

In addition to Wilson’s “Century Cycle,” other notable productions by the theater have included “Crowns,” “’Master Harold’… and the Boys” and the indelible “A Raisin in the Sun.”

Yet, in presenting the works of perhaps the greatest playwright in the African-American dramaturgical diaspora and arguably its most revered (Wilson won a Pulitzer Prize for “Fences” and “The Piano Lesson”), Open Stage has chosen to raise the stakes in the conversation about what it means to be black in America.

“Two Trains Running” is at the apex of this conversation chronicling a decade, the 1960s, which regressed from great American hope to social, racial and political unrest and the resulting assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy, as well as the Vietnam War.

More specifically for African-Americans, the laws of Jim Crow led to a full-grown civil rights movement and the assassinations of leaders Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., along with the rise of the Black Panthers and urban riots in Watts, Detroit, Chicago and Washington, D.C.

As such, the seminal question asked in this Tony Award-winning play is: When do we, as African Americans, get our ham? In fact, the question is waved constantly in the face of audiences through Hambone, a disillusioned, mentally immature man who believes a grocery store owner owes him a ham and limits his conversation to the words: “I. Want. My. Ham.

With the timing of this presentation, Open Stage challenges its audience—a predominantly white audience through the years—to answer the aforementioned question, a provocative one, at a time when organizations such as Black Lives Matter are interrupting political campaign speeches and invading malls across the United States to get a largely white American audience to honor the same sentiment, I. WANT. MY. HAM.

From the ghosts that haunt us as a people in “The Piano Lesson” to the blues that consumes us in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and the religion that betrays us in “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone”—even to the dream that escapes us in “Fences”—“Open Stage has provided a vehicle for there to be open dialogue about the issues,” notes veteran actress and company member Sharia Benn.

This is evidenced most by the post-show discussions Open Stage has held for each of the Wilson shows.

Still, in a city that is 52-percent African American (according to the U.S Census Bureau’s 2015 report), Benn and other Open Stage resident actors like Aaron Bomar and Ronnie Banks would like to see more blacks come out to see and hear their voice represented. With Wilson, Bomar believes African-Americans “have their own Shakespeare.”

Perhaps the great irony arising from this statement is that Open Stage has presented the “African-American Shakespeare” far more than it has Shakespeare himself, proving that the history, the legacy, the stories and the experiences of African Americans—yes, black lives indeed—have always mattered throughout the theater’s long history.

“Two Trains Running” runs Feb. 5 to 21. Tickets are $25 to $35 and can be purchased online at openstagehbg.com or by phone at 717-232-6736 or the box office (located in the administrative offices of Open Stage across the elevator lobby from the theater doors). Producer and Artistic Director Donald Alsedek directs a stellar cast that includes Aaron Bomar, Daniel Fordham, Louis Riley, Jennette Harrison, Ronnie Banks, Eric Sabin Sims and Caliph White.

February Theatre Events
At Harrisburg’s Professional Downtown Theatres

Through Feb. 7
“RED VELVET”
by Lolita Chakarbarti
at Gamut Theatre
Fridays & Saturdays at 7:30 pm
Sundays at 2:30 p.m.
Tickets: GamutTheatre.org

Feb. 5 to 21
“TWO TRAINS RUNNING”
a drama by August Wilson
at Open Stage of Harrisburg
Thursdays to Sundays, with these special events:
2/5 Opening night w/reception
2/11 Thrifty Thursday w/limited $15 tickets available
2/14 2 p.m. matinee includes post-show discussion
Tickets: openstagehbg.com

Feb. 17 to March 5
Popcorn Hat Players present
“STONE SOUP”
at Gamut Theatre
Wednesdays and Thursdays, 10 a.m.
Saturdays, 1 p.m.
Tickets: GamutTheatre.org

Feb. 19 to 21
Harrisburg Shakespeare Co presents
“A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM”
Friday and Saturday, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, 2:30 p.m.
at Gamut Theatre
Tickets: GamutTheatre.org

Feb. 26 & 27 at 8 p.m.
“BILL W. AND DR. BOB”
a staged reading of the hit play
about the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous
at Open Stage of Harrisburg
Tickets: openstagehbg.com

Harrisburg’s “Merchant Princess”: New book explores the fascinating life of retail pioneer Mary Sachs.

January 29, 2016 | by Rebecca Oken

Eleanor Roosevelt and Mary Sachs.

As a Jewish kid growing up in Harrisburg, I went to the Jewish Community Center on Front Street multiple times per week.

Often, I would end up in the main auditorium, more commonly known as “The Mary Sachs,” for the woman whose Mona Lisa-like portrait hangs above the doorway. It wasn’t until many years later that I realized she was a Jewish woman and entrepreneur whose story is woven into the fabric of Harrisburg.

“She was seen as a merchant, philanthropist and benefactor,” said William Greenberg, Sachs’s grandnephew and chairman of the Mary Sachs Trust.

Now, a new book details her life and success in this city’s heyday. Barbara Trainin-Blank’s “Mary Sachs: Merchant Princess” (Sunbury Press) takes us back to the first half of the 1900s, when Harrisburg was a bustling, industrious city.

Trainin-Blank describes her book as a second edition of sorts to Bern Sharfman’s 2003 book, “Their Gifts Keep Giving: The Saga of Mary Sachs and Her Two Co-worker Sisters.”

“What else was there to say?” Trainin-Blank said she remembers thinking after reading that book.

Quite a bit, it turns out. Using resources like the Mary Sachs Trust, the Dauphin County Historical Society and Pennsylvania State Archives, Trainin-Blank focuses mainly on Sachs and her entrepreneurialism, while incorporating details about her sisters and their collective philanthropy.

Commanding Respect

Born on March 10, 1888 in Lithuania, Sachs immigrated to the United States with her mother and two sisters—five more siblings would be born in this country—in 1892. After living in various places around Maryland and Pennsylvania and gaining experience in retail, she settled in Harrisburg around 1916, writes Trainin-Blank.

The Mary Sachs Store opened in Harrisburg on Sept. 6, 1918, with Lancaster and Reading locations following in 1921 and 1923, respectively. According to Trainin-Blank, success came quickly, as the store grossed more than $200,000 in sales during its first year.

Between 1955 and ’58—the “high water mark,” Greenberg said—Sachs employed about 200 people. Initially selling just women’s apparel, the Harrisburg location at 208 N. 3^rd St. eventually expanded to include men’s and children’s clothing, a home goods section, a paper shop and a candy shop.

Aunt Mary was Ms. Sachs in her store, recalled Greenberg, speaking of his days as a store clerk in the 1950s. Her demeanor commanded respect, but she was personable, friendly and caring toward those around her, he said.

The stores’ advertisements reflected those values, often boldly and unconventionally. In reference to her refusal to join the “Chain Store Age,” one of her ads, included in Trainin-Blank’s book, stated, “I am too individual in my approach to fashion to be a link in a chain. And the women I cater to are too individual in their requirements to be counseled by proxy…I have a fierce attachment to Harrisburg…It’s my town, and I love it.”

Ahead of the Curve

The Mary Sachs Store was the first in central Pennsylvania to carry certain high-quality, unique designers and manufacturers, said Greenberg, a federal judge in Washington, D.C. Sachs traveled with her sisters, Hannah and Yetta, to New York several times per year and Paris annually to purchase merchandise.

“She was ahead of the curve of what was going to sell and be popular,” Greenberg said.

He remembers “many an afternoon” working on his aunt’s personal delivery vans, and the stores’ distinctive gray-and-red wrapping paper was held as a status symbol.

Sachs’s personal attention to both her customers and clothing earned her acclaim beyond Harrisburg. First ladies Eleanor Roosevelt and Mamie Eisenhower were both customers and personal friends, and she often welcomed important public figures to Friday night dinners at her Front Street mansion. Along with promoting her business, Sachs used her ads to appeal to the public and comment on current events, Greenberg said.

“I wish she was better known,” said Trainin-Blank, a long-time Harrisburg-area writer and contributor to TheBurg. “That was the purpose [of the book].”

Trainin-Blank’s connection to Sachs goes back to her early years in Harrisburg in the late 1980s when Hannah, Mary’s youngest sister, approached her about the book that Sharfman would later write. Almost a decade later, after a meeting with Sunbury Press founder Larry Knorr to discuss another of Trainin-Blank’s books, the two mutually agreed that a Mary Sachs monograph was needed.

Sunbury Press, based in Mechanicsburg, often publishes local historical books, and Knorr wanted to do one involving Harrisburg’s Jewish community.

“This was a woman in the early 20^th century who owned her own retail business,” Knorr said. “There’s something there.”

“Mary Sachs: Merchant Princess” contributes to an often-quiet legacy that has spanned decades since Sachs’s death in 1960. That legacy now largely rests with the Mary Sachs Trust, on whose board Greenberg has sat since 1973. He said that Sachs was as much a philanthropist as she was a businesswoman, and the trust aims to support organizations and institutions that she supported in her time.

“What would she do and observe as a need?” he said, regarding the trust’s mission.

Today, Mary Sachs’s place in history reaches beyond the auditorium at the Jewish Community Center or the downtown building that still bears her name. It reaches to local colleges and universities, to girl and boy scouts, and around the world.

“Mary Sachs: Merchant Princess” by Barbara Trainin-Blank can be found at local bookstores, online and at www.sunburypress.com.

King Cabernet: All hail the wine that would rule the world.

January 29, 2016 | by Steve Juliana

In the world of wine, there are seven grapes designated as “noble,” two of which are white and five red. They are called noble because they have spread worldwide and produce not only good wine, but, in some cases, the very best that can be found.

The five reds are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Sangiovese and Syrah. These grapes have formed the idea of what we expect in wine across the globe, as well as in their homelands.

The number-one red grape in all temperate growing areas is Cabernet Sauvignon. The history of this great fruit starts in the 17^th century in southwestern France, where an accidental cross of Sauvignon Blanc from the Loire Valley with Cabernet Franc from the Bordeaux region produced a grape that was greater than the sum of its parts.

The vine is vigorous, hardy and stands up to frost, as well as some diseases. The berries are small but thick-skinned and tolerant to many different weather conditions. The grape reaches its pinnacle in the Medoc and Graves regions of France, with the wine taking on flavors of black currant, spice and cedar wood. Combined with other Bordeaux varieties, Cabernet adds depth, structure and age-worthiness to blends.

In the New World, Cabernet is the darling of Napa Valley. The grape takes on its own personality in a region referred to as its “second home.” Growing conditions are so benign that it can overproduce with very little flavor on the fruit side of the wine spectrum, where the quaff can taste tannic and vegetal.

On the bright side, growers have learned to tame these tendencies, which allows one to find excellent wine the length and breadth of the valley. The sub-regions of Stag’s Leap and Rutherford Bench are where Cabernet reaches its cult status. The wine usually needs aging and is very expensive, so don’t look for it on the Wine Train. That said, the demand is high, and there is no dearth of wine drinkers who are more than willing to take the plunge to experience some of the greatest Cabernets in the world.

If you find yourself in the position where you would like to try this kingly quaff but don’t have the deep pockets that France or California require, look to other regions. Plenty of good wine is coming from Washington state these days, as well as unique bottles from the Coonawarra area of Australia with its “terra rosa” soil.

South African Cab is light and elegant with its blend of balanced fruit and tannic structure. I am also a big fan of Chilean Cabernet, specifically from the region known as the Maipo Valley. These wines have dense, dark fruit matched with dusty tannins, don’t usually need a lot of aging and are very affordable. They are, in my opinion, the ultimate match for grilled steak. Try them.

In wine history, as in human history, we see the offspring of two divergent parents rise—and become the king.

Keep sipping, Steve

A Harrisburg Valentine’s: On this special day, Rosemary dines out–and finds much to recommend.

January 29, 2016 | by Rosemary Ruggieri Baer

Duck breast with blood orange gastrique, note.

For such a long time in Harrisburg, there was little to celebrate.

In the early ‘70s, the floodwaters from Tropical Storm Agnes all but decimated the city. Continuing into the ‘80s, as many residents left for the suburbs, the city was a ghost town after 5 p.m. There were a few bright spots, such as Strawberry Square, but it, too, became deserted when the state workers left for home. Two tiny restaurants, Caruso’s and Au Jour La Jour, lured patrons back to the city for a time. They were wonderful places, but were just not around long enough.

So here we are in 2016, and it’s almost Valentine’s Day. I am happy when I think of how far our little city has come. Often, we take a few steps back, but, in the restaurant department, we seem to keep adding more terrific places as each year goes by. This month, I would like to share with readers some of my favorite places to go for Valentine’s Day and some of my favorite dishes offered by each place. If you don’t normally come to the city to dine, you might be surprised.

Qui Qui Musarra, Mangia Qui.

Mangia Qui. Located on North Street, Mangia Qui is one of three restaurants co-owned by expert chef Qui Qui Musarra. It is the most formal of the three. The others are Suba (a Spanish tapas bar upstairs at the same location) and the French-inspired Rubicon right next door. Mangia Qui’s theme is Italian and Mediterranean, and the quality of the food is superb. Qui will often serve dishes that are rarely found elsewhere in the region, such as true Dover sole, whole branzino and dry-aged, hand-cut, Tuscan rib-eye steak.

Here are my recommendations for a Mangia Qui Valentine dinner started with a glass of cold Prosecco.

Musticanza: a salad of baby greens with gorgonzola crostini and marinated tomatoes dressed with a fig balsamic vinaigrette.
Gnocchi all’Amatriciana: homemade gnocchi that are light as a feather tossed with a sauce of San Marzano tomatoes, onions, guanciale and pepperoncini (nice to split or request a half-order).
Anatra: a grilled duck breast and stone fruits served with polenta and a balsamic drizzle.

Desserts change with the day, but I would hope for a lemon tart back there in the kitchen. The espresso is excellent, with many different types to choose from.

Note. Bistro and Wine Bar. This little gem of a restaurant is located at the corner of N. 2^nd and Harris streets and is relatively new. It is a warm and friendly place anchored by a small but lively bar offering some of the best cocktails in town. Wine choices, usually from Italy or France, can be found on a large chalkboard that occupies an entire wall at the back of the restaurant. At note., I would order:

Caesar Salad: hearts of Romaine lettuce, Caesar dressing (on the side), focaccia croutons and shaved Grano Padano cheese.
Berkshire Pork Chop: Pork chop served with butternut squash, risotto, pancetta, pearl onions, thyme and caramelized brussel sprouts, all topped with a maple Bourbon glaze.
For dessert, some homemade gelato and note’s excellent French press coffee.

Carley’s Ristorante and Piano Bar. We have gone to Carley’s for many years so, for us, it always seems like we’re going to the legendary Cheers, “where everybody knows your name.” Carley’s makes very good veal, and that’s what we usually get there. So, to end my Valentine’s Day culinary tour, I would order:

Baby Arugula Salad: a salad served with Gorgonzola cheese, candied walnuts and pears tossed with mustard vinaigrette.
Veal Marsala: tender veal cutlets sautéed in butter with mushrooms, garlic and shallots in a hearty Marsala wine. (This dish can also be prepared with chicken, if you prefer.)
Peanut Butter Pie: Carley’s (and its sister restaurant Stock’s on 2nd’s) signature dessert. It is very rich and can easily be shared with your Valentine’s Day partner.

The pianist at Carley’s will keep things lively, but you can always request a slow romantic tune.

If you are out and about in Harrisburg on Valentine’s Day, there are other choices. I also recommend Pastorante on N. 3^rd Street, a casual and inexpensive choice for homemade pasta, Café Fresco for wonderful Asian-inspired dishes like salmon with black rice, and Home 231, which serves farm-to-table food that is unique and delicious.

Brighten your Valentine’s Day and the waning days of winter with a visit to one of these special Harrisburg eateries. They are truly something to celebrate.

Heart of a Community: A century old, the Jewish Community Center continues to foster unity, identity, memories.

January 29, 2016 | by Barbara Trainin Blank

The Jewish Community Center is more than a physical space.

Since its inception in 1915, the JCC has been the focal point of the city’s Jewish community. Not surprisingly, then, a Dec. 5 celebration of the center’s 100^th anniversary drew hundreds of people.

Margie Adelmann, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Harrisburg—the umbrella organization that supports the JCC—calls the JCC the “central unifying organization, where people come together, where all are welcome for cultural, fitness and educational opportunities and to learn more about Jewish life and traditions—regardless of how they practice Judaism.”

“No matter which synagogue a family was affiliated with, Harrisburg Jewry joined together at the JCC,” noted Marian E. Frankston, co-chair with Marcia Cohen of the celebration.

Throughout its history, the JCC’s programming has been “extensive and eclectic,” including pottery, photography, dramatics, gala dances, bowling, basketball, gymnastics, swimming and handball. Adult classes have ranged from philosophy to politics.

“When I was a youngster, my brothers, sisters and I were at the JCC six days a week,” Frankston recalled. “We attended the Yeshiva Academy, now Silver Academy. One of the most popular activities was ‘iddy biddy’ basketball. There was a program called ‘Sunday Funday’—for children with teen counselors—and an active teen lounge for meetings, dances and games.”

Milestones

A Jewish community existed in Harrisburg before 1915, boasting several communal organizations and businesses and three synagogues.

However, it lacked a central building. Community leader Louis Brenner formed the local Young Men’s Hebrew Association, which provided Jews with recreational, educational, social and cultural activities, and Leon Lowengard became its first president.

In 1921, these community leaders purchased a large private house on N. 3^rd Street. That building, now the Harrisburg Midtown Arts Center, remained the JCC venue until 1958, when the current structure was built Uptown. In 1995, the federation launched a campaign to renovate and expand it.

Over time, services and programs were added, including the Community Review, a bimonthly publication “reflecting a true cross-section of Jewish life”; the Early Learning Center; the day camp, now at Green Hills Swim Club; and the Yeshiva Academy.

During the turbulent times of the Holocaust and World War II, Rabbi David L. Silver, spiritual leader of Kesher Israel Congregation, established the Yeshiva, a Jewish day school, in the JCC. Harrisburg became the first American city with a population of fewer than 5,000 Jews to have a school teaching both Judaic and secular studies.

“Rabbi Silver was a special man,” said Merv Woolf.

Woolf, born and raised in Harrisburg, started using the JCC at an early age.

“I went to Hebrew School and to the gym,” he recalled. “I was on the basketball and swim teams. It was a place to go when my mother took ill when I was 7. I’d walk there and spend the whole evening.”

Later, Woolf got involved in theater, including an elaborate production of the musical “Pal Joey.” He also recalled the JCC’s New Year’s Eve gatherings.

Over the years, Woolf and his wife DeDe have served on “every committee.” He was on the board of the Yeshiva Academy and the building committee that oversaw the 1996 renovations.

In addition to historic events, the community was besieged by natural disasters, including the massive flooding of the 1972 Tropical Storm Agnes and by Tropical Storm Lee in 2011.

In 2004, the community mourned the passing of Albert Hursh, who had worked at the JCC and the United Jewish Community (the predecessor to the Jewish Federation of Greater Harrisburg) for more than 70 years, serving as executive director of both.

Hursh was a “dominant leader who will long be remembered,” said Morton Spector, who was born in Williamsport but moved with his family to Harrisburg in 1948.

Melting Pot

Shortly after his father’s heart attack in 1956, Spector was asked to get more involved in the community.

He chaired the annual campaign and was president of the JCC and later, a board member and chair of the United Jewish Community. The JCC’s Freda and Harry Spector Room is named for his parents.

“The center was always the melting pot, able to maintain visibility for both the Jewish and non-Jewish communities,” he said. “All the organizations, such as Hadassah, Anti-Defamation League and Israel Bonds used it as a home base. It was for Jews of all religious denominations.”

For Spector, the heart of the JCC is the Yeshiva, of which he was a president.

“It brought kids and their parents into the building,” he said. “The Yeshiva and its mission embody the JCC.”

Like Home

Alyce Spector, married to Morton for 65 years, grew up in Paxtang and took two buses to N. 3^rd Street to Hebrew School at the JCC five days a week. She remembers basketball games, fraternity and sorority meetings and Broadway shows at the JCC.

Always active, Spector was president of Young Judaea, a Zionist youth movement, a Hadassah member, and president of the PTA at Yeshiva and of Israel Bonds, among other positions. She founded a program promoting tolerance and diversity in public schools through the federation.

She has vivid memories of collecting money to settle immigrants in Israel. During the Six-Day War in 1967, “an emergency campaign raised the highest per capita contributions of any community in the country,” she said.

Lillian Rappaport heads the Hebrew High for public school students and the federation’s Holocaust education programs. The latter include the annual “March of the Living” to Poland and Israel for teens and the “Reading of the Names” of Holocaust victims. The community also built a Holocaust Memorial in Riverfront Park.

A Harrisburg native who returned after years in New York, Rappaport loved growing up in a small, close-knit community.

One “profound memory” was the center. She took art, bowling and trampoline classes and attended the Yeshiva and after-school program.

“After doing my homework, I went to the JCC,” Rappaport said. “It had everything, but the activities were secondary. Everyone was there.”

The younger generation is represented by Emily Doctrow Freeburn.

“My parents and I were born in the city, and three-quarters of my grandparents were raised here,” she said. “Many of my aunts, uncles and cousins also chose to raise their families in Harrisburg.”

Freeburn considers herself “lucky” to have grown up in a tight-knit community where many people feel like family and the JCC feels “like home.”

She participates in the young adult leadership cohort, which helps train leaders, and serves on the board of the Silver Academy.

“I feel like I spent my entire childhood at the JCC, between attending the ELC [Early Learning Center] and the Yeshiva Academy to after-school activities like swim team and basketball, to community/family activities such as the Purim Carnival,” Freeburn said. “I would also go to the JCC to watch my dad play basketball or to hang out while my parents were in meetings.”

As an adult, she uses the gym, and her husband has participated in sports leagues. The couple is expecting a first child this month and is looking forward to raising a family at the JCC.

“Because we all felt welcome at the JCC, we experienced a real sense of unity,” concluded Frankston. “We were a community who joined together in joy and in sorrow.”

The Harrisburg Jewish Community Center is located at 3301 N. Front St., Harrisburg. For more information, call 717-236-9555 or visit www.jewishharrisburg.org.

Painting the Town: The Susquehanna Art Museum’s new executive director got her dream job–and walked into the challenge of her life.

January 29, 2016 | by Lori M. Myers

Alice Anne Schwab is no stranger to the world just outside the doors of the Susquehanna Art Museum.

She grew up in Harrisburg, and her dream from the age of 12 was to work as a museum curator. So, she moved to New York, where she managed the day-to-day operations of a Soho gallery and thereafter worked as the assistant to a prominent hotel developer.

“Not Donald Trump,” she states firmly. “While working during the day, I attended culinary school at night. After 10 years in New York, I moved back to Harrisburg to be nearer to family.”

She became a caterer and eventually opened her own restaurant, Alice Anne’s Kitchen, on N. 2^nd Street.

“I had the restaurant with a wonderful staff and terrific customers for two years,” Schwab recalls. “It almost killed me. I got no sleep. I am still a recovering restaurateur.”

After a stint with the Harrisburg Symphony, she saw an opportunity to fulfill her childhood ambition when the executive director position opened at SAM, following the departure of Laurene Buckley. So, she applied, got her dream job—and almost immediately found herself in the midst of a firestorm.

After taking the position, she was told about a months-long struggle between SAM’s bank and its general contractor over a $1.2 million state grant. Soon, the story hit the press, and the museum endured months of negative publicity (and speculation about its demise) as the issue landed in court and was ultimately settled in negotiation.

Schwab now is faced with the raw reality of making sure SAM’s future extends well past its 26-year history, which will require planning, resourcefulness and a lot of money.

Schwab believes the museum is making progress on all these fronts.

First, there’s new leadership following the resignation of several board members linked to the financing controversy. SAM recently added five new members and, in December, embarked on a three-day strategic planning process with a consultant who had worked with the museum in the past.

“We have learned a lot that informs our ongoing budgeting process,” she says. “We have some major fundraising goals, but with the strength in leadership and the support that is growing in the community, I believe we are poised to be able to achieve our financial goals.”

Another major goal is accreditation, which will facilitate SAM’s efforts to borrow artwork for exhibits, a vital requirement for a museum that lacks a permanent collection. So, it is working towards membership in the American Alliance of Museums and solidifying its participation within the North American Reciprocal Museum Association.

“One of our goals is to become an accredited museum,” Schwab explains. “Accreditation is a process, not an achievement. We are in that process now. While having a facility that lives up to the standards is a first step, and we have achieved that step by creating this fine museum building, there are several other important facets of accreditation, including the ability to operate on an ongoing basis.”

Indeed, Schwab emphasizes that you can’t put the cart before the horse. SAM needed to have a world-class space that met stringent requirements for exhibits before it could even begin the accreditation process. It now has that with its sparkling, 20,000-square-foot facility at the corner of N. 3^rd and Calder streets that opened just a year ago.

While many of Schwab’s goals remain in progress, there is one area that she believes is firm and that she’s especially proud of—reaching out to the greater Harrisburg community.

As one of her first official acts, she supervised the installation and dedication of the iconic mural that now towers over the streetscape on N. 3^rd Street. She also expanded SAM’s educational and outreach efforts.

“While we enjoy the novelty of our Midtown Harrisburg location, and we are delighted to be a part of the Midtown renaissance, we are a resource and a touch point for the whole community,” Schwab says.

Last month, the museum invited that community along to celebrate a year of growth and healing (“We’ve had both,” Schwab remarks). And, on Feb. 13, to close its Dali “Les Diners de Gala” exhibition in the Lobby Gallery, SAM will host a special dinner re-enacting the Dali dinner party with recipes from the cookbook.

Coming up are Pennsylvania impressionist paintings, curated works on the topic of immigration and an exhibition of the work of important African-American artists.

“Each one of our exhibitions features several unique and specially designed educational engagement components, truly making Susquehanna Art Museum a museum of and for the greater Harrisburg community,” Schwab says. “Great things are happening at the museum. We love to facilitate opportunities for our community to be a part of.”

The Susquehanna Art Museum is located at 1401 N. 3^rd St., Harrisburg. To learn more, visit www.sqart.org.

Outshine with Outerwear: The weather may be ugly, but you don’t have to be.

January 29, 2016 | by Dave Marcheskie

“Cold enough for ya?”

It’s an odd expression that I loathe simply because it is cold enough. February is often the harshest, snowiest month around Harrisburg. When my meteorologist friends get geeked out by negative wind chills, I become frustrated with every alternative term to “the white stuff” during the wall-to-wall flurry coverage. It’s easy to ditch fashion for comfort—er, survival during this time of year. But we can try to make facing the bitter cold look hot.

Who didn’t have a Starter jacket in the ‘90s? Besides that lame Cowboys fan (emoticon winky face), everyone I knew had either had a Kelly green Eagles or a red Phillies pullover half-zip Starter jacket growing up. Just about every girl had a purple-and-teal Charlotte Hornets Starter jacket.

But, fellas—have you ever noticed that our female companions have a dozen different jackets hanging up in their closet? (Or slung over every dining room chair in my experience.) Women have moved on from athletic franchise billboards—shouldn’t we? Perhaps this could be a wise Valentine’s Day gift. Follow me.

It should be no surprise that many current men’s winter coats have a military background. The government-issued weather-beaters have kept many fighters alive in battle since the 17^th century. Still, today, there are slight differences between function and fashion.

Overcoats became popular after Napoleon’s military charge in frigid Russia. This type of outerwear extends below the knee and is usually constructed of a heftier fabric—wool, tweed or cashmere. Personally, I think Napoleon just wanted to appear taller. Not a bad trick if you have a similar complex.

Topcoats are the military’s dressier warm gear. Topcoats usually fall above the knee and are made of slightly lighter fabric. The topcoat’s cousin is called a covert coat, distinguished by a velvet collar—nice detail. These are great for your workweek. Go with black, navy or charcoal for a slimmer appearance ($55 Dobell.com). Go bold. English designers have perfected the topcoat in recent decades. This London-style twist offers glen plaids, windowpanes and herringbone textures in unique shades like camel-and-cranberry ($115 Samuel-Windsor.com). Many of these coats also feature an outer breast pocket for, say, a pocket square!

Another military-style staple is the tried-and-true, Navy-style pea coat that extends just below the waist. This double-breasted jacket worn by salty sailors will never have you looking like a boob. Keep it classic—navy or black. For a slight variation, I have one with a shawl collar ($79 Macys.com).

World War I was all about trench warfare, hence the invention of the trench coat. These extend nearly to your toe. Unless you want to look like Neo from the Matrix, I vouch for a shorter coat and tall socks to keep your calves warm instead.

Lastly, there’s the bomber jacket. This Maverick-must has roots in the Air Force. Leather and lamb’s wool acted as a good windbreaker in the open-air cockpit. They have an elastic band at the waist to keep Jack Frost from creeping up your back. To look like an ace aviator and not a “Top Gun” fanatic, there are slimmer, fleece-lined flight jackets that’ll keep you toasty and flying style high ($99 PXclothing.com).

While coat collars do their best to keep your neck warm, you’d better invest in a scarf. If you have two or three different colors, you can switch up the look in an inexpensive way while wearing the same coat. If you have a solid dark coat, go with a regal purple check scarf. If you went big on your coat, perhaps a dark solid scarf to balance out your boldness.

Bonus: Retailers say that this may be the best time of the year to buy new outwear. Most stores are trying to dump inventory to make room for happier spring things. Plus, warmer temps earlier this winter means there’s a lot of unbought jackets needing a back, which is why you could see major discounts.

Once you gifted yourself, it is time to offer your fancy new layer to your Valentine’s date while walking downtown. Perhaps, fashion and chivalry will not make you shiver alone on these cold February nights (emoticon winky face).

As a twist on the usual gentleman’s cocktail (which has become a tradition in this column), I want to pass along an adult V-Day dessert that’ll make your date melt.

AFFOGATO:

Two scoops of ice cream (try Urban Churn’s chocolate)
One shot of espresso (Made in a Moka pot, $9 Home Goods)
1 ounce of Avion Espresso Liqueur

Use a ground coffee of choice and make the Moka pot stovetop coffee. Pour the coffee and Avion over the ice cream and eat immediately—one spoon per couple (emoticon winky face).

Our Sharp Press Man, Dave Marcheskie, is a reporter and anchor for abc27 News. If you’d like to ask Dave a fashion question, please email it to [email protected]. He may use it in a future column.

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