News stories tagged with "canton"

(05/22/12) Long-time Canton resident Peter Van de Water is out with a new book, This is What I Thought at the Time. It's a collection of his essays originally published in the St. Lawrence Plaindealer: everything from farming to politics.

Todd Moe spoke with him about writing essays based on what he was reading, childhood memories on the farm and changes in society. Van de Water has spent most of his life in Canton, graduated from St. Lawrence University, retired in 1984 and says his essays were inspired by his father's newspaper columns in the Watertown Daily Times.

(05/03/12) Village and state police, investigators from the county sheriff's department and sniffer dogs didn't find evidence of a bomb at Canton Central School. The school was evacuated this morning after a high school student reported the word "bomb" written on a girls' bathroom stall. more

(04/27/12) Continuing our occasional series on North Country entrepreneurs, we talk with Jeremy Morrow. Morrow owns the Harvest House framing shop on Main Street in Canton.

He's had a couple locations in the last few years: his shop was in a restaurant that closed down, and now he's on the second floor of a building that doesn't get much walk-by traffic. Although he says he's tried advertising, he gets most of his business from word-of-mouth. more

(04/24/12) Todd Moe talks with Syracuse University historian Milton Sernett, an expert on African American history. He'll give two talks in Canton on Thursday on Harriet Tubman, and the Underground Railroad in northern New York. Todd talks with him about how Tubman became the dominant symbol of the Underground Railroad and is still an inspiration today for many Americans.

(04/13/12) The centennial of the Titanic's sinking is marked with a new book by Canton author Chris Angus. The Last Titanic Story connects the sinking of the ship, 100 years ago this Sunday, with lost treasures, a World War II German U-boat and a diary.

Angus is best known for his nonfiction about the Adirondacks and the outdoors. But he says the disaster of the Titanic is rich in perspectives, history and human interest. He told Todd Moe the idea for the novel grew from his fascination with the Titanic: the ship, its passengers, the disaster and a "What-If."

(04/12/12) Participants in a series of dance workshops tomorrow and Saturday will help create the mood for a final dance concert Saturday night in Potsdam. The St. Lawrence County Arts Council has invited the Sasha Soreff Dance Theater to bring their interactive dance piece, titled "The Shoelace Project," to the North Country this weekend.

Director Sasha Soreff told Todd Moe that audiences will participate by writing their hopes and fears on wide shoelaces before the show, and during the performance the company's dancers will use the shoelaces and translate the thoughts into movement. She says the workshops will be open to people of all abilities.

(04/10/12) For more than 50 years, Ruth Colvin and her husband have traveled to more than 60 countries and provided literacy training in Africa, Asia and South America. In 1962, Colvin founded Literacy Volunteers of America. She's also written many books on basic literacy and English as a second language. Colvin was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1993 and awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2006.

Tonight at 7 pm in Griffiths 123 at St. Lawrence University, she'll share stories her new book, Off the Beaten Path: Stories of People Around the World.

Now 95-years-old, Colvin has filled her Syracuse home with art and souvenirs from around the world, but she told Todd Moe that working with people and sharing their stories are favorite aspects of her career.

(03/23/12) Some of Johann Sebastian Bach's most outstanding compositions will be performed in St. Lawrence University's Gunnison Memorial Chapel during the Third Annual Bach Marathon on Saturday.

Music historians agree that for Bach, an early 18th century German composer who wrote over a thousand compositions, music making was natural. Marathon organizers say they want Saturday's audience to gain a new sense of the freshness and vitality of familiar Bach pieces.

Organist Donald Sutherland has been artist-in-residence this week at St. Lawrence University, offering recitals and lectures. His visit culminates with a performance Saturday night during the marathon.

Todd Moe spoke with him about new ways to think about Bach as a human being with a great gift, and how his music is still vibrant more than 300 years later.

(03/21/12) Every year around the first day of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere (or the first day of Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere) people all over the world gather to tell stories for World Storytelling Day.

Pyrites storyteller Jan Hutslar joins Todd Moe in the studio to share her love of telling tales with a story by Faith Ringgold set in Harlem.

(02/24/12) The sweet sounds of the St. Lawrence University Community Gospel Choir will fill Gulick Theatre in Canton again tomorrow evening. Eleven members of the ensemble, including co-directors Rev. Shaun Whitehead and Barry Torres, joined Todd Moe in the studio during the Eight O'clock Hour this morning.

William Hamilton, of the Chicago Mass Choir, joined the group on keyboards. He's been leading a gospel music workshop at St. Lawrence University this week, and you're invited to move, swing and sing along Saturday 7:30 pm at the 9th annual "Got Spirit?" gospel concert in Canton.

An earlier version of this story reported the concert start time as 7 pm. NCPR regrets the error. more