You, reader of the Independent, grasping a newspaper or squinting at your laptop, probably already believe that writing matters. But not everyone does. Defending the written word’s worth is exactly […]
About Saskia Maxwell Keller
QUEER ‘I’
A Town Two Streets Wide
Reflecting on identity, connection, and Mary Heaton Vorse
“If Provincetown were wiped out — my house and my town gone — I would be as vulnerable as a hermit crab without its shell,” writes Mary Heaton Vorse in […]
WHO?
FAWC and WHAT in Joint Venture
Outer Cape arts organizations to team up this summer
PROVINCETOWN — Since 1968, the Fine Arts Work Center here has welcomed artists and writers to its prestigious winter fellowship and hosted summer workshops led by an impressive faculty. Likewise, […]
DAY FOR UKRAINE
Making Prints for Peace
Local artists get their hands dirty to help Ukrainian refugees
A couple of Wednesdays ago, a dozen artists gathered in the Fine Arts Work Center’s printmaking studio. They had been invited to create prints and donate them to “A Day […]
INDIE PLAYLIST
A Selection of Musical Madeleines
Songs that evoke memories for Indie staff and contributors
For this first Indie Playlist of 2022, contributors were asked to pick songs that brought them back to a particular moment in their lives. Listen at tinyurl.com/wva345xe. ‘When It Rains,’ […]
OPERA
Boston Lyric Opera Throws a Beach Wedding
Svadba draws inspiration from far-flung Truro and Serbia
Boston Lyric Opera’s production of composer Ana Sokolovic’s Svadba begins not with music but with the sound of the wind at Truro’s Ballston Beach where it was filmed in October. […]
BOOK REVIEW
A Life Full of Music, and More
The trailblazing cellist with a dancing soul
Carol Procter was only the third woman cellist hired by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The Boston Symphony Orchestra year was 1965, and Procter was in her early 20s, recently graduated […]
CODA
Delving Deeper Into Provincetown’s Musical History
Sometimes the best discoveries happen post-publication
Last summer, I received an intriguing Instagram message: “Hi, my name is also Saskia, but that’s not why I’m messaging you. I was Googling and came across your article on […]
LETTER FROM THE ARTS EDITOR
Looking Through Opera Glasses
For this year’s Divine Comedy-themed art and photography extra, most of the contributors chose Inferno. It’s not surprising, considering the hellish couple of years we’ve had. Not represented in this […]
BOOKS
Capturing ‘Our Provincetown’ in Words and Brushstrokes
A collaboration between Barbara E. Cohen and local writers
Among the distinguished contributors to Our Provincetown: Intimate Portraits, a book of painted Polaroids by Barbara E. Cohen published last month by Provincetown Arts Press and edited by Dorie Seavey, […]
OPERA
With Eurydice, the Met Doesn’t Look Back
Matthew Aucoin retells the myth with contemporary flair
In the third act of Matthew Aucoin’s Eurydice, the stony guardians of hell’s gates instruct Orpheus, “You can’t sing here unless you sing in a dead language.” The libretto, which […]
NEW COMPANY AT FAWC
Fine Arts Work Center Welcomes Its 2021-2022 Fellows
20 visual artists and writers take up residence in Provincetown
Nineteen writing and visual arts fellows arrived last month at the Fine Arts Work Center for seven-month residencies in Provincetown. One more fellow, Ellen Akimoto, is in Germany dealing with […]
Queer ‘I’
It’s Fun Being Trans
A Report from Provincetown’s Fan Fair 2021
In November 1980, a journalist named D. Keith Mano wrote an article for Playboy titled “It’s No Fun Being a Girl.” The article — which I read thanks to a […]
OPERA
Seeing Fire in a Crowded Theater
The Met returns with Terence Blanchard’s work about race, sex, and coming of age
Being back at the Metropolitan Opera in New York last Wednesday had a surreal quality. Masked faces peered across balconies through opera glasses. The sound of the orchestra warming up […]
NATIVE ART
Hawk and Sierra Henries Create Beauty out of Wood
Father and daughter are Weidlinger house residents this week
Hawk Henries has been making hand-carved wooden flutes since as long as his daughter Sierra, 34, can remember. “He’s one of a very small handful of people doing the work […]
