21st Annual Fall Arts Music Festival Sunday will feature Darlene Love
Legendary singer Darlene Love will headline the 21st Annual Hoboken Fall Arts & Music Festival, which takes place from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. this Sunday, Sept. 28. The city of Hoboken-organized event will stretch along Washington Street from Observer Highway to Seventh Street. The Hoboken Reporter is a co-sponsor.
The festival’s three stages will also feature Union City-based singer-songwriter Allison Strong, Hoboken based singer-songwriter Maddy Bowes, Weehawken-based Jeremy Beck & the Heavy Duty Horns and the Sensational Soul Cruisers from Freehold. Other scheduled performers include Tom Vincent & the Romance Commandos, Emily & the Ideals, Gene D. Plumber (of Hoboken), Preschool of Rock, and The Garden Street School Band.
In addition to live music, this year’s festival will feature over 300 vendors along Washington Street. Among the expected offerings are crafters, photographers, sculptors, local restaurants and businesses, non-profits and car dealers.
Fine artists will be featured between First and Newark, Second and Third and Fifth and Sixth Streets, including artists from Hoboken’s Monroe Center for the Arts. A special children’s area adjacent to the Third Street Stage will offer rides, facepainting, balloons, and games.
In addition, street cafes will offer cuisine from a variety of cultures, including Thai, Indian, Greek, French, Mexican, Cajun and Italian.
The Performance Schedule is as follows:
Observer Highway Stage:
11:50 a.m. Allison Strong
12:40 p.m. Jessy Carolina & the Hot Mess
1:40 p.m. The Harmonica Lewinskies
2:45 p.m. The Sensational Soul Cruisers
4:30 p.m. Darlene Love
Third Street Stage – Children’s area:
noon Garden St. School Band
12:50 p.m. Mad Science
1:30 p.m. Hoboken School of Music
1:55 p.m. Studio L Dance Co.
2:20 p.m. Preschool of Rock
3:10 p.m. Erin Lee & the Up Past Bedtime Band
4:10 p.m. Jason Didner & the Jungle Gym Jam
Seventh Street Stage
12:30 p.m. Maddy Bowes
1:00 p.m. Gene D. Plumber
1:35 p.m. Emily & the Ideals
2:35 p.m. Tom Vincent & the Romance Commandos
3:45 p.m. Jeremy Beck & the Heavy Duty Horns
5:00 p.m. Frankie Morales & the Mambo of the Times Orchestra
Schedules are tentative and subject to change.
Hudson County freeholders postpone vote on Hoboken’s Monarch development project to Oct. 28
Developers and concerned citizens alike will have to wait another month to hear whether the Hudson County Board of Chosen Freeholders will allow a controversial plan to build residential towers on a pier in northern Hoboken to move forward.
On Tuesday evening, the board voted 6-0 to reschedule the hearing to Oct. 28 after it could not muster the simple majority of freeholders necessary to form a quorum.
Hudson County is one of several public entities from which developer Shipyard Associates LP must receive approval before it can move ahead with its project featuring two 11-story residential towers on the empty pier adjacent to Weehawken Cove and 15th Street.
In 2012, the Hudson County Planning Board rejected its application. Shipyard Associates appealed the decision in Hudson County Superior Court, which remanded the appeal to the Board of Freeholders in July.
Eight of the nine Freeholders were present at Tuesday’s special meeting—Thomas Liggio called in sick. However, Anthony Romano, who represents Hoboken and Jersey City Heights, and Doreen DiDomenico recused themselves as current members of the Planning Board, and Freeholder Jeffrey Dublin had to leave early due to a family emergency.
Albert Cifelli voted on the motion to reschedule but could not count towards a quorum because was present via conference call.
The proposed development, known as the Monarch at Shipyard, needs county approval because it abuts county roads and sewers. According to the Fund for a Better Waterfront, an activist group that has been involved in several Monarch-related court cases, Planning Board commissioners at the 2012 hearing questioned why Shipyard had classified the Hudson River Waterfront Walkway as a street.
Shipyard Associates, a subsidiary of Hoboken-based Ironstate Development, first received permission to build on the pier in 1997. In 2012, it decided to pursue a second residential building on the pier instead of three tennis courts included in its original plans.
Mayor Dawn Zimmer and the Hoboken City Council have come out strongly against the Monarch project. Earlier this year, the City Council passed two flood protection ordinances that would forbid new construction on Hoboken piers.
The city says it is bringing its laws in line with new FEMA flood danger maps, whereas Shipyard Associates asserts that it is being deliberately targeted.
The county planning board is the only standing rejection of the Monarch project. Hoboken and a number of local community groups have challenged the project’s approval by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and a Superior Court reversal of the Hoboken planning board’s rejection. The cases are ongoing.
Hoboken Comedy Festival opens Monday; will raise money for Jersey City dog shelter
The Hoboken Comedy Festival back and bigger than ever. For its fifth annual installment, the stand-up extravaganza will expand from three days to seven days, presenting almost 100 different comedians at 10 showcases with no repeats. The laughs begin Monday, Sept 29 with a show at Willie McBride’s headlined by Christian Finnegan.
Other well-known comedians appearing at the Festival include Todd Barry, Chuck Nice, Greer Barnes, Andrew Schulz, Chris Distefano, Mike Britt, Keith Alberstadt, and Carlos Mencia, who will headline the grand finale on Sunday, Oct.5.
The Festival will mark the first time Maxwell’s Tavern has been used as a stand-up comedy venue since its post-live music reboot.
“We are so happy to be the first comedic event at the new Maxwell’s Tavern,” says Frigolette. “This venue was a huge part of our first three years in Hoboken, it’s only right that our joint history continues to grow.”
For the third year in a row, Hoboken Comedy Festival will donate part of its earnings to the Liberty Humane Society, a dog shelter in Jersey City. The Festival donates $1 per head directly to the shelter and passes direct donation bins throughout performances to raise money for the charity. In addition, this year’s festival includes a special outdoor show on Pier 13 with a suggested donation going directly to LHS.
For more information and to buy tickets in advance, go to www.HobokenFestival.com.
ISIS threat causes PATH and Jersey City to increase security
A statement by Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi at the United Nations this week that ISIS may be planning to attack subways has caused Jersey City police to increase security, according to Public Safety Director James Shea.
ISIS, a well-funded terrorist group in Iraq and Syria, is reportedly seeking retaliation for American air strikes, and may be looking to do so inside the United States, reports said.
This comes when the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has also increased its security measures for the PATH trains, and will start more vigilant random searches of packages and bags.
NBA picks Wallace Elementary for its Day of Service
This past Monday, Wallace Elementary School was transformed when employees from the New York and New Jersey offices of the NBA came through for the annual NBA Day of Service. The NBA volunteers held fit clinics in the gymnasium and Columbus Park, workshops on nutrition and bullying, painted hallways and the playground, and landscaped a courtyard. They were joined by NBA Legend Felipe Lopez, who played for St. John’s and a number of NBA teams.
The event was organized in conjunction with Jersey Cares, which organizes volunteering events for corporations and businesses. According to Jersey Cares representative Heather O’Loughlin, Wallace was chosen because it was close to New York and because Principal Roger Bowley was so easy to work with. Basketball players from Hoboken High School pitched in as well, priming walls the night before the Day of Service so that the NBA volunteers could do their painting.
Adopt one of the street cats rescued by Hoboken firefighters
Willow “the street cat of First Street” and her four kittens were rescued on July 19, 2014. They were found in the crawlspace beneath Riverside Laundromat & Dry Cleaners and taken out with the help of Hoboken firefighters from Ladder 2 & Engine 5. Now her rescuers need your help.
Willow has been a fantastic mom to her four kittens—she has even nursed two orphaned kittens that are no relation! Now they are ready for new homes. (One kitten has already been adopted.) To adopt Willow or one of her kittens, please reach out to Patty at p_drumgoole@yahoo.com. To donate to offset the veterinary expenses for Willow and her family, please send a check made out to: Companion Animal Placement, PO Box 3365, Hoboken, NJ 07030.
Black Maria back for film series at the Hoboken Historical Museum
The Hoboken Historical Museum is pleased to extend its relationship with the prestigious Black Maria Film Festival, now in its 33rd year as a juried competition of independent short film and video works.
Starting on Tuesday, Sept. 30, and continuing on the last Tuesday of the month, including Oct. 28 and Nov. 25, Museum Associate Ian Maxen will host an evening of diverse short films from the Festival collection – narrative, experimental, animation, and documentary – ranging from comedy to drama to the exploration of pure form in cinema, which exemplify the festival’s award-winning films. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m., and the screening will commence at 7 p.m., followed by a facilitated discussion. A $5 donation at the door includes light refreshments.
Named after the world’s first motion picture studio built by Thomas Edison, where he made all of his own short experimental films, the Black Maria Film and Video Festival has a long track record of commitment to short works.
For further information, contact the Hoboken Historical Museum at 201-656-2240, www.hobokenmuseum.org; or contact Black Maria Festival Director Jane Steuerwald, jane@blackmariafilmfestival.org, 201-200-2043. Program information is posted on the Black Maria Film Festival website under the Tour Schedule link: www.blackmariafilmfestival.org.