Silver City Newsletter, Summer and Fall 2016

This Silver City newsletter includes a list of upcoming Silver City events, news about the recent Nevada Supreme Court hearing, a link to the results of a recent Silver City town survey, summaries of the annual summer program in Silver City, links to articles about the first big concert at Silver City’s new outdoor stage, and articles about the Resident Artist Program in Silver City.

Fall Events:

Mary MacDonald Memorial Sept 24th: There will be a memorial service for Mary MacDonald, a long time Silver City resident who loved flowers, music, art and beautiful food, at the Silver City School House on Saturday, Sept. 24 at 1pm. Please bring a potluck dish, memories and any photos you'd like to share. Obituary: http://www.nevadaappeal.com/news/obituaries/24012344-113/mary-cerstvik-macdonald

Acoustic Music Jam Saturday, September 24 from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm. If the weather is good, it will be held in the park on the new Silver Pavilion outdoor stage, but if not, it will be in the School House. Bring your instruments and jam. This Silver City Arts event is held on the 4th Saturday of each month. Follow Silver City Arts here: https://www.facebook.com/Silver-City-Arts-618872294885649/

Silver City Advisory Board Applications: Anyone interested in serving on the Advisory Board for the town can go to the Lyon County website to find an application. The next Advisory Board meeting is on Tuesday, October 4 at 7:00 pm at the School House. More about the Advisory Board here: http://www.lyon-county.org/221/Silver-City-Town-Advisory-Board

Oct Silver City Arts group meeting: Thursday, October 13 at 7 p.m. under the trees in the park if the weather holds, otherwise, meet in the School House. Agenda: discussion of possible winter exhibition of paintings by local artist Larry Kotik. FAQ about Silver City Arts here: https://www.facebook.com/notes/silver-city-arts/what-does-silver-city-arts-do/915220355250840

Concert at the School House with Rick Shea and also The Good Intentions on Sunday, October 16, 2016. Doors open at 4 pm, Show at 5 pm. Details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/516376968532976/

News:

Silver City Town Survey Report Now on Lyon County Website: Silver City Town Advisory Board Chair Erich Obermayr writes, "I am very happy to announce that the Silver City Town Survey is now available on the Lyon County website. On behalf of the Advisory Board, and the Silver City community, I want to express our special thanks and appreciation to County staff and the Commissioners for helping to make our survey a success." The Silver City Citizen Advisory Board undertook a town survey for the purpose of providing the Advisory Board with information about the community, and the issues and concerns important to residents. The survey can be found here: http://www.lyon-county.org/DocumentCenter/View/7129

Comstock Residents’ Association vs. Lyon County Board of Commissioners: Joe McCarthy of the Comstock Resident’s Association said of the Sept 14th hearing with the Nevada Supreme Court that the “Supreme Court oral arguments were an inspiring display of judicial excellence. A significant number of Silver City folks showed up, filling up the room. Daan Eggenberger, Kate Marshall, Bob Fulkerson, John Hadder and others were all in the house, plus numerous UNR students, and several Reno attorneys serving as observers. The justices were gracious, funny and engaging. It was a first class event. Incredibly transparent, open, educational and uplifting. Lawyers from both sides were professional and well prepared. Our attorney, John Marshall, was exceptional. He was flat out outstanding and we're grateful to have him arguing for our side. Even if the outcome of the court ruling is not in our favor, the Comstock Residents Association will continue to explore every legal avenue to head off further desecration of the beautiful Virginia City National Historic Landmark and the vibrant communities of Gold Hill and Silver City with industrial scale mining where it doesn't work or belong.” A decision is expected in one to two months. More about the case in this RGJ article: http://www.rgj.com/story/news/local/mason-valley/2016/09/21/court-panel-hears-oral-arguments-comstock-residents-case-county/90797206/

Silver City Has a New Outdoor Performance Stage: The “Silver Pavilion” Inaugura- Palooza concert on August 20th was a big success with at least 150 folks from near and far in attendance during the 6 hour event. The festival style public event was held to celebrate the much anticipated addition of a new outdoor stage to the region’s arts and music scene. Continuing the long tradition of live music on the Comstock, the new “Silver Pavilion” in the Park will serve as a center for live music and performing arts in a beautiful high desert setting. The event was reviewed in the RGJ, the Mason Valley News, the Nevada Appeal, the Comstock Chronicle, Carson NOW, and This is Reno, as well as Nevada Travel Network News. More about the stage and the concert: http://nevadaweb.com/travelnetnews/new-stage-in-silver-city-adds-to-comstocks-live-music-and-theater-venues/

Comstock Photographs and Stories in Oct 2017 Haldan Art Gallery Exhibition at Tahoe: Internationally acclaimed photographer Frances Melhop writes, "thanks to the Resident Artist Program in Silver City I was awarded a residency in August in order to complete a project that has been in progress for 3 years. The Comstock Portrait Project. The Resident Artist Program in Silver City is a privately funded arts and community project run and supported by Quest Lakes and Theo McCormick. McCormick’s father, the well known Nevadan print maker and installation artist Jim McCormick, built the series of geodesic domes to live and work in in the early 1970s. It is a hobbit house in the desert! For a week I photographed locals in the historic school house studio with the help of Quest, who is a programming and scheduling magician, Mary Works Covington, film maker, who recorded stories from the portrait subjects, and 3 amazing interns, (Ava Covington, Marielle Toll, and Cora Jeffreys). I can’t thank all of you enough! Deep into the night I was editing and listening to the hours of recordings. Amazing stories and recollections of the Comstock in the 60s and 70s to present day." To view some of the photogaphs by Frances and the interns, go to Frances’ website:
http://www.frances-melhop.com/news/

PHOTO BY MARY WORKS COVINGTON

Silver City Summer Program 2016: With collaboration among many groups, the annual free summer program included free events for children, teens and adults. Events included a United Way fun fair for preschoolers and their parents with a theme of literacy; hands-on engineering activities with the Society of Women Engineers and science experiments with University of Nevada Cooperative Extension’s Jim Barcellos; and a children’s bicycle safety rodeo with Western Safe Routes to Schools. For teens and adults, the summer included a reading by poet Shaun Griffin from his new memoir and a pop-up exhibit and reception for local artist Karen Kreyeski's "Women's Project: The Gift" (both sponsored by Silver City Arts), a music seminar with guitarist Mylo McCormick, dance lessons with Jessica Sanford of Earlham College, an illustration workshop with London-based artist Claire Scully and an embroidery workshop artist Stewart Easton of the United Kingdom (sponsored through the Resident Artist Program). Also, the ship art piece made by Oakland artist Scott MacLeod in collaboration with Silver City residents was on display all summer at St. Mary’s Art Center in Virginia City. More here: http://nevadatravel.net/travelgram/wp/index.php/silver-city-correspondence-june-2016/

Poet Dave Lee, his wife Jan and their dog Jax are staying at McCormick House in Silver City from Aug-Dec 2016 while Dr. Lee teaches a graduate level poetry class at UNR. He'll also be offering a free poetry workshop and reading in Silver City in the Fall or Winter (dates TBD - those events are sponsored through the Resident Artist Program in Silver City with additional support through Healthy Communities Coalition). Utah's first poet laureate, Lee has been a boxer, pig farmer, seminary student, cotton mill worker, and a baseball player. He’s received the Utah Governor’s Award for lifetime achievement in the arts and the Entrada Institute’s Ward Roylance Award, and was also considered as a candidate for Poet Laureate of the U.S. His book Last Call was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. The Utah Endowment for the Humanities declared him to be one of the 12 greatest writers to ever emerge from the state. Dr. Lee is enjoying his time in Silver City, and had these remarks about hiking above Silver City and hearing music from the town's new outdoor stage (during CRA's rummage sale): "I hiked a long way yesterday. Way up. Almost to the point where I could look over and be looking down at VC. Way way up there I heard the music... One of the best concerts I've ever heard in my life....It was a moment of epiphany for me. I sang along with Tumbling Tumbleweeds, deliriously, off key and viva voce and when we finished, all together, in fact, I stayed still for a while, seconds, maybe minutes, time was suspended, and when I came back there were 3 jackrabbits almost within spitting distance of me, staring at me, all, and I could hear them wondering Who and what in the world is this? and 2 hawks directly overhead screeing, and I came back and then walked away, down, and the jackrabbits did not move, and the hawks, for a short way, lead the way, singing. Glory."

Comstock Residents Association’s Rummage Sale and BBQ: The annual Labor Day weekend event to raise funds to preserve the historic landmark was very successful, with music on the new outdoor stage adding spice. CRA kindly donated left over items to the Dayton Food Pantry, the Silver Stage Little Free Library, the Silver City Volunteer Library, the annual Walk in Memory, Walk for Hope suicide prevention event, and other nonprofits. More here: http://carsonnow.org/reader-content/08/29/2016/big-comstock-rummage-sale-and-bbq-live-music-benefits-historic-preservatio

Articles

Silver City has been in the news quite a bit lately. Below are links to a few of the articles:

The Resident Artist Program was featured in the Arts Section of the Reno News and Review! “Rural Retreat” was written by Kris Vagner: https://www.newsreview.com/reno/rural-retreat/content?oid=21873439

The Silver Pavilion: >A review of the first big concert at the Silver Pavilion was included in print and online news in Reno, Carson City, Virginia City, etc. Below are links:

http://thisisreno.com/calendar/silver-citys-new-stage-adds-comstocks-live-music-performing-arts-venues/

http://www.nevadaappeal.com/news/23674524-113/story.html

http://www.rgj.com/story/news/local/leader-courier/2016/08/16/silver-city-celebrates-pavilion-inaugura-palooza/88872420/

http://nevadaweb.com/travelnetnews/new-stage-in-silver-city-adds-to-comstocks-live-music-and-theater-venues/

Articles about the Comstock Resident’s Associations annual Rummage Sale and concert:

http://www.rgj.com/story/news/local/leader-courier/2016/08/29/labor-day-rummage-sale-benefits-comstock-preservation/89554318/

http://carsonnow.org/reader-content/08/29/2016/big-comstock-rummage-sale-and-bbq-live-music-benefits-historic-preservatio

http://www.nevadaappeal.com/news/23674890-113/story.html

Articles about the Summer Program

http://nevadatravel.net/travelgram/wp/index.php/silver-city-correspondence-june-2016/

http://www.nevadaappeal.com/sports/22201904-113/story.html

http://carsonnow.org/reader-content/08/02/2016/bike-safety-rodeo-kids-tuesday-august-9th

http://www.nevadaappeal.com/news/22940991-113/silver-city-hosting-free-engineering-activities-for-children

http://www.rgj.com/story/news/local/leader-courier/2016/06/17/science-fun-kids-june-21-silver-city/86052398/

http://www.rgj.com/story/news/local/leader-courier/2016/06/17/science-fun-kids-june-21-silver-city/86052398/

http://arts4nevada.org/opportunities/15/07/2016/narrative-stitching-workshop-london-based-artist-stewart-easton

http://www.nevadaappeal.com/sports/22836520-113/story.html

New Titles at Silver City's Volunteer Library

Silver City, Nevada- There are lots of new titles at the Silver City Volunteer Library. We've rotated the collection, bringing many from the downstairs collection, and adding completely new titles donated by the Comstock Residents Association from their delightful annual rummage sale. Below are a few of the new titles:

Nonfiction

Enoteca: Simple, Delicious Recipes in the Italian Wine Bar Tradition by Joyce Goldstein

The Glass Pantry: Preserving Seasonal Flavors

The Art Lovers Cookbook: A Feast for the Eye

Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction by David Sheff

My Struggle by Karl Ove Knausgaard

Getting into the ACT: Official Guide to the ACT

Fiction

Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner

El viejo y el mar by Ernest Hemingway

Red Dust by Gillian Slovo- Review: "This remarkable exposition of a Truth Commission amnesty hearing in a backwater South African town underscores that "the full truth" is more complex than court transcript or verdict can ever reveal. South African police brutally tortured and murdered at will in their unfettered efforts to crush the "terrorist" acts of black rebels against apartheid. Now those rebels occupy the higher branches of government while the offending policemen are imprisoned... Amnesty hearings are meant to bring closure to the violent period that ended apartheid by forgiving crimes by former officials, where possible. But this powerful novel — full of legal and emotional twists and turns—strips bare the torment forever ingrained in victim and jailer alike, a torment that runs through all segments of post-apartheid society."

Mysteries

The Dante Club by Matt Pearl: " Set amidst a series of murders in the American Civil War era, it also concerns a club of poets, including such historical figures as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., and James Russell Lowell, who are translating Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy from Italian into English and who notice parallels between the murders and the punishments detailed in Dante's Inferno."

Poetry

Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens

Blood Sister, I am to These Fields by Linda Hussa

Young Readers

City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau (Sci-fi)

Valley of Secrets by Charmain Hussey- Review: "Stephen Lansbury, an English orphan who has never known his relatives, receives an amazing inheritance from his great-uncle. Now he owns an estate called Lansbury Hall in Cornwall. He must meet the conditions of the will in order to inherit the property: leave the grounds and house as they are, never invite anyone to visit, and never share the results of his Great-Uncle Theodore's research...Stephen discovers and shares Great-Uncle Theodore's long-ago adventures on the Amazon River by reading his travel journals. In fact, Stephen is soon convinced that reading his uncle's journals will unlock the mystery of his new home. But will it also somehow give him the money he'll need to keep Lansbury Hall?"

Children's Titles

Diez Deditos: Play Rhymes of Latin America

Ready to Read by Rosemary Wells

And dozens and dozens more...