From a couch in band member Zach’s dimly lit basement to the Boston Calling stage, the Greater Boston-based soul pop band, Couch, is on the rise. Last Saturday, July 22nd, Couch closed out the 8th annual Linda Plaut Festival of the Arts at Newton’s Hyde Playground. Many of the audience…
Posts published in “People”
In the beginning, Joy Gong never wanted to start fencing. At the age of just seven, she was scared of the coach, and the daunting threat of being poked by a blade made it all the more nerve racking. Her father Ron explained the long negotiation process of getting his…
Josephine McNeil, Co-Founder and Executive Director of CAN-DO has received a 2023 Community Advocacy Award and award grant from the Eastern Bank Foundation for CAN-DO’s role in helping low and very low income residents of Newton access affordable housing and get access to the services they need to achieve more financial security and housing…
Last week, we introduced the first two of our four Fig City News high-school summer interns. We are now pleased to introduce our other two interns, who are starting this week. They both have a lot to offer Fig City News and the Newton community, and we look forward to their help.
At age 16, Erik Weihenmayer came to the Carroll Center for the Blind on Centre Street to learn to adapt to the total loss of sight he had recently experienced due to a rare disease. In that program, he had his first exposure to rock climbing on a trip to North Conway, NH. Seventeen years later, he would become the first blind person to summit Everest.
Joan Mikula, former Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health (DPH), received an honorary degree and delivered the keynote address at the commencement ceremony of William James College on June 11. In her 35-year career at DPH, she shifted emphasis from inpatient to community care, developed frameworks for serving…
Beloved Nonantum residents Lucia Arpino, Gilda (“Jill”) Damore, and Bruno Damore — victims of the June 25 triple homicide — are remembered in obituaries linked above. Visiting hours will be held at Our Lady Help of Christians Church (573 Washington Street) on Wednesday, July 5 from 4PM to 8PM. A…
Daniel Francis Clifford, 74, a longtime Newton resident and commercial real estate consultant, appraiser (MAI) and reviewer, died at home from Melanoma on Sunday, June 25. He leaves his wife Margi Butler; daughter, Irene; son, Jay and his wife Denisse; stepson David Winbourne and his wife Justine, his brothers Doug and…
Newton photographer Kathy Pillsbury will show her photographs in an exhibition, “A Close Look,” at Gorse Mill Studios Gallery (31 Thorpe Road, Needham). The exhibit will be open June 29 through July 26, and there will be a reception at the gallery on July 6, 5:30-7:30PM. Gallery hours are 12PM-6PM…
Sean Smith, a long-time Newton resident, has published his first novel, Transformation Summer — a coming-of-age tale told as a memoir: A man recalling the summer he was 16, when his world seemed to be falling apart – and years later, still processing what happened. The book has been selected…
The Rotary Club of Newton has awarded David Sellers, Executive Director of the John M. Barry Boys and Girls Club of Newton, with its Paul Harris Community Service Award – Rotary’s highest honor, recognizing outstanding contributions to the community. Sellers received the award Tuesday night at the club’s Installation and Award…
On Saturday evening, an audience of about 100 attended the Newton Theatre Company’s free performance of The Monologue Project: LGBTQ+ Voices — first-person accounts, essays, poems, and songs written and performed by Newton residents. There will be one more free performance of this important, hour-long, thought-provoking work on Monday, June…