The Scoop

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EDITOR JULIE IMEL DISHES THE NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW

A truly fortifying summer
If you’re looking for something thoughtful and fun to do Thursday night, stop by the Pages and Places Café at the Platform Lounge at the Radisson at Lackawanna Station at 7 p.m. The Gathering at Keystone will present Art and the Soul: A Panel Discussion. The event features three artists – a musician, a visual artist, and a writer — who will talk about the role that religious, moral, and scientific beliefs—and unbeliefs—play in their work. The panelists include Canon Mark Laubach, author Tim Parrish and photographer Lori Ryan.
Canon Laubach is known internationally for his unique gifts in virtuosity and expressive nuance. He’s been organist and choirmaster at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Cathedral in Wilkes-Barre for 22 years.
Ryan, a native of Scranton, is an award-winning photographer whose soulful work has been featured in national magazines and shown all over the East Coast.
Parrish is author of the story collection Red Stick Men. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in numerous anthologies and journals. He has won numerous awards and teaches in the MFA Program at Southern Connecticut State University.
Arrive early to enjoy food, beverages and discussion, and stay late to chat with friends, old and new. Sounds like a great way to spend a Thursday night!
The Pages and Places series will continue in July when The Lackawanna County Library System presents a talk with George Aulisio on Technological Determinism: How Technology Affects and Drives Society on Thursday, July 12; and award-winning fiction writer Stephanie Powell Watts will read from the collection, We Are Only Taking What We Need, on Thursday, July 26.
Those of you who enjoy the Pages and Places series are encouraged to explore all the creative greatness that The Gathering at Keystone College has to offer this summer. The Gathering is northeastern Pennsylvania’s premier literary conference held at the college’s beautiful campus in La Plume. This year’s conference is slated for July 19 through 22, and features creative exploration through poetry, fiction, film, music, children’s and young adult literature, science, dance, yoga, visual arts and more. Participants will enjoy lectures, panels, readings, and elective workshops, all while contemplating the theme, “Believing, Unbelieving, and the Moral Compass.” For more details and to register, visit www.gathering.keystone.edu.
From food for thought to just plan fabulous, fresh food, don’t forget to stop by the Farmers’ Market on Public Square in Wilkes-Barre on June 28. Opening Day features music by Windfall, and, as always, plenty of the area’s finest food. You’ll find fresh produce, artisan bread, fresh flowers including hanging baskets, annuals, perennials, herbs, cookies, cakes, pies and pastries, honey, apple cider, candy, jams, jellies and salsas, farm fresh eggs, and even entrees to go so you don’t have to cook at the end of a long day at work. The market will be open every Thursday through Oct. 11 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, visit www.wilkes-barre.pa.us.
Another upcoming event known as much for its delicious food as its musical lineup is the Briggs Farm Blues Festival in Nescopeck. The festival will be held July 6 and 7, and will feature artists such as Eddy “The Chief” Clearwater, Alexis P. Suter Band, Lonnie Shields, The CKS Band, Moreland and Arbuckle, The Butterfield Blues Band, Sarah Ayers and more. The festival also features a special Mississippi Delta Blues menu and vendors offering handmade items and gourmet foods. One-day tickets are $23 in advance or $28 at the gate, and two-day tickets are $40 in advance or $50 at the gate. To camp on site, through July 5, tickets are $75 each or $85 per person at the gate. For more information, visit www.briggsfarm.com or call 379-2003.
That’s the scoop! Thanks for reading, and I’ll meet you here again next week.