Issue 23: Going places
Rebecca Conroy on her Hudson Valley photo exhibit
Rebecca Conroy’s dreamy photography received a lot of love in the newsletter when her exhibit at the Basilica opened a few weeks ago, and we got to spend more time with her and her art for today’s issue. Rebecca will also be taking 80’s-style portraits and selling prints at the exhibit’s closing party this weekend, accompanied by live music by Erika Spring of Au Revoir Simone (Saturday only). Thanks for joining us this week, Rebecca!
There is so much beauty in the meeting of youthful hope with the honesty of a location that has since aged and been left behind. A place that once had a similar hope attached to it but has receded into the background of an ever-evolving culture. I love the idea of having the girls in my shoots stand so honestly in the forgotten and hidden spaces of where they’re growing up, here in the Hudson Valley.
My photo exhibit,"Going Places", at the Basilica Hudson, captures the moments of these meetings, this tension of girls in or on the edge of adolescence yet briefly frozen in time, standing against the backdrops of forgotten places. Like the story of The Velveteen Rabbit, the photos prove that there is something deep and lovable about what has been ignored by the adults of current society. They wear clothes from the past, found hidden on jam-packed racks right at the local Goodwill or Salvation Army on Fairview Avenue in Hudson.
I remember so vividly what people would wear when I was a girl in the 80s, the formality and the gorgeous designs and fabrics. The girls in my photos seem like they could dissolve into the past, perhaps with a Smurfette lunchbox in hand, a perfect knee-length skirt made in Taiwan, and wearing a glitter water bracelet.
So many inspirations and moods for many of the shoots came about because of the two oldie music stations we listen to in our car. Vintage songs that my daughter and her friends know now by heart and play on their guitars, keeping the tunes alive in their own fresh ways. The curiosity cabinet that quietly exists underneath the surface of modern life in the Hudson Valley comes to light in this body of work.
The models are, for the most part, not performatively smiling, and not because they aren’t peaceful or happy. I am fascinated by the expectations viewers may have of a beautiful young girl and of taking that assumption and turning it on its side.
The shots document girls in spaces like abandoned strip malls, slowly fading yet still proper Catskill summer motels, quiet small mom-and-pop diners, and roadside religious statues. This body of work follows the same social circle of girls (my daughter and her friends and their siblings) over four years, capturing fleeting moments of their youth.
I also see it as an homage to adolescence, a time when the innocence of childhood is left behind for a slightly messier, more mysterious impending reality, and of finding beauty in the inevitable question marks.
What We’re Reading
[Rebecca] - These three books make me breath a sigh of happiness to know they exist. Holding them and flipping through their pages is a reliable source of inspiration: William Eggleston's Guide by John Szarkowski, Grace: A Memoir by Grace Coddington, and Wallflower by Deborah Turbeville.
[Ashley] - I hit play the moment this episode of The Money with Katie Show popped up. As a working mom, I am acutely aware of how much childcare actually costs. As a board member for my daughter’s daycare center (no, I don’t really have time and yes, I do it because I believe in it with my whole heart), I am also intimately familiar with the absolutely impossible finances of running a daycare center. Katie Gatti Tassin and her guest Eryn Schultz made me feel so seen and not so alone in the absolute insanity of affording childcare in 2025.
[Genevieve] - What I’m reading this week reveals a little secret I’ve been keeping. My read is the blog post and podcast episode from Melissa K. Norris “Raising Backyard Chickens 101.” Yes, my friends, we are welcoming six to ten new family members this month. Pray for me. In a year from now you’ll be hearing my desperate pleas to take eggs off my hands.
[Maddie] - Sandwich by Catherine Newman had the “family drama on vacation” category on lock last summer, and I’d like to nominate Weike Wang’s observant, sharp, funny Rental House as its successor. And plus, it’s short - I tore through it in that precious reading slot between the kids’ bedtime and my own.
Our Picks
[Rebecca] - Here’s where I’m turning these days for endless rabbit hole journeys of inspiration and information — Girls, On Film (devoted to 80’s films), The Selvedge Yard (“a historical record of artistry, anarchy, alchemy & authenticity”), and 50 Watts (a growing archive of weird and wonderful visual ephemera from around the world).
[Ashley] - My husband is an architect and construction manager and was OBSESSED with Legos as a child. He has now passed this onto our daughter who will sit, focus, and build for an impressive amount of time. It’s a sweet activity for them to do together in a phase that’s otherwise very “mama, mama, mama.” These fish building blocks come in individual boxes so you can tackle one at a time. She gets so excited to build a new sea creature, and her underwater collection is growing!
[Genevieve] - I’m having one of those weeks where I swear the sky is falling (and that’s because unfortunately for many, it is). So I found a salve, a brief respite in CCWF Paper Trail: a newspaper published by the women, nonbinary and transgender people incarcerated at the world’s largest women’s prison in Chowchilla, California. You can and should subscribe to their newsletter, and read their stories from inside on how ice cubes are a hot commodity and managing through menopause while incarcerated.
[Maddie] - As someone who loved the dough ball at Chevy’s as a kid and the tortilla machine at Frontier Restaurant as an adult, it’s hardly a surprise how much I love Caramelo tortillas. We first ordered them as a present for my father-in-law, and they’ve been a toddler-friendly staple in our house ever since. I’ve spotted them at Talbott & Arding and Mx Morningstar in Hudson, but you can find a full stockist list here.
Working Together
Friends in NY State: send a letter to your state reps asking them to fund childcare in the 2025 budget. It takes no more than 30 seconds and hopefully nudges us a little closer to universal childcare. Vermont’s done it, and we can too.
Protect our libraries from being defunded at the federal level, and advocate with the team at the American Library Association (ALA).
In the Neighborhood
We live in the Mid-Hudson Valley and we’re keeping tabs on these (mostly family-friendly) events near us. If there’s another event you’d like us to share, reply to this email or drop it in the comments!
Mondays - Wiggles and Words (for 0-6 months) at the Red Hook Library, Red Hook
Mondays and Fridays - Tunes and Tales at the Red Hook Library, Red Hook
Wednesdays - Runs with Return Run Club, Hudson
Thursdays until April - Music & Movement Storytime at the Hudson Area Library, Hudson
Saturdays until late April - Hudson Indoor Winter Market, Hudson
Saturdays until June - Children’s Workshops (5+) at Art Omi, Ghent
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Friday, March 28 - Remember You Mama’s Circle, Kingston ^
Saturday, March 29 - Community Care Acupuncture Clinic, Hudson
Saturday, March 29 - Spring Gardening Day at CCE, Acra
Saturday, March 29 - Resilience Café with Bard and Thrift 2 Fight, Red Hook
Saturday, March 29 - Sunday, March 30 - Rebecca Conroy Photography Exhibit Party at Basilica Hudson
Sunday, March 30 - Laurie Berkner Band at The Egg, Albany *
Sunday, March 30 - Spring Pony Party at Rose Hill Farm, Red Hook
Sunday, March 30 - T Bone Burnett at Levon Helm Studios, Woodstock ^ *
Sunday, March 30 - Big Screen Karaoke at Story Screen Cinema, Hudson
Monday, March 31 - International Transgender Day of Visibility
Thursday, April 3 - Educator Appreciation Night at Oblong Books, Rhinebeck
Friday, April 4 - Nikki Chasin Warehouse Sale, Hudson
Saturday, April 5 - Hands Off Mass Mobilization, multiple locations including Kingston and Albany
Sunday April 6 - Art Omi: Writers Reading, Hudson ^
Starting the week of April 6 - Catskill Mountain Music Together music classes, multiple locations *
Wednesday, April 9 - Feria de Abril at Isola Wine Bar, Kinderhook * ^
Saturday, April 12 - Clothing Swap and Stitch at Maison Après, Kingston
Saturday, April 12 - Spring Egg Hunt at Forsyth Park, Kingston
Sunday, April 13 - 🌼 Spring Swap with The Soft Spot and The Spark of Hudson 🌼, Hudson
Saturday, April 19 - Hop ‘Til We Drop Egg Hunt Party, Great Barrington
Thursday, April 24 - Saturday, April 26 - Ever After Consignment Sale, Chatham
Saturday, April 26 - Blossom & Bloom - UHPP benefit dinner at Foreland, Catskill * ^
Saturday, April 26 - Independent Bookstore Day celebration at Oblong Books, Rhinebeck and Millerton
Saturday, May 3 - Hudson Children’s Book Festival, Hudson
Friday, May 16 - Saturday, May 17 - CCEDC Plant Sale and Fundraiser, Millbrook
Saturday, May 17 - CCECG Plant Sale and Fundraiser, Hudson
Sunday, May 25 - Sara Bareilles, Natalie Merchant, and Rachael Yamagata in A Night of Community and Song at Assembly, Kingston *
^ = for adults
* = will likely sell out, so book soon
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