Tag Archives: Jessica Bram

Roundup: Downtown Cleanup, CT Business, VersoFest Heartbreaker …

Posted on February 5, 2026 | 12 comments

It takes a village — to clean a village.

With an enormous amount of snow, and temperatures remaining well below freezing, cleaning up from the January 25 storm was difficult.

Plowed, congealed piles made walking and parking difficult downtown.

So on Tuesday night, SCA Crowley — led by vice president Maxx Crowley, president of the Westport Downtown Association — joined forces with Westport’s Department of Public Works team.

SCA spent 3 hours on Main Street removing snow.

It was then hauled away by DPW director Peter Ratkiewich’s crew, led by superintendent Joe Izzo and crew captain Dave Smith. Public Works followed up by salting roads and sidewalks.

It’s much easier to park now — which means it’s far easier to drive and walk, too. Thanks to all who helped!

One view of the Main Street cleanup …

… and another. (Hat tip and photos/Andrew Colabella)

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“Your State, Your Business” — a 3-part event bringing 3 of Connecticut’s constitutional officers to Westport to discuss issues regarding the state and how they relate to business (and residents) is coming to town.

The Westport Weston Chamber of Commerce and Westport Library are collaborating on the series.

It kicks off on March 5 with Comptroller Sean Scanlon. Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas follows on March 19. Attorney General William Tong is the final speaker, April 2. All sessions begin at 11 a.m.

Each event includes a presentation by the officer, a moderated discussion, and questions from the audience. It’s free, but registration is required.

For more information, including registration, click here.  

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Heartbreaker!

Tom Petty won’t be at this year’s VersoFest.

But his daughter will be.

Adria Petty — a noted producer and music video director — will be at the Westport Library on March 28 (3 p.m.). She’ll discuss her father’s legacy, with music and technology pioneer Sam Hendel.

Petty works as a managing partner at the Tom Petty estate with her family and the remaining members of Tom Petty’s band and operations team, preserving their archive of 40 years of American music.

She has directed videos for recording artists like Beyonce, Coldplay and Rihanna. She has also done commercial spots for brands such as Lancôme, Target, Converse, Hershey’s, McDonald’s and more. 

Her appearance is one of many free events, at the 5th annual VersoFest. Click here for the full lineup.

Adria Petty

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A reminder: Friends of the Senior Center are sponsoring their 25th annual Super Bowl tailgate party this Sunday (February 8, 1 p.m.).

All ages are welcome to enjoy hot dogs, chips and dessert, plus a chance to meet Staples High School’s championship boys soccer and rugby teams.

PAL and Staples cheerleaders will perform.

And there’s a “guess the final score” contest, with prizes.

All ages are invited. Registration required by noon Sunday: 203-341-5098.

The state champion “futbol” team will be at the Senior Center football Super Bowl party on February 8. (Photo/John Walker)

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Shoot for the stars!

The Westport Astronomical Society is introducing a new STEM opportunity for students in grades 9-12. It’s run through the Northeast Occultation Network (NEON).

Participants will learn to operate telescopes, observe and capture astronomical data from asteroid occultations, and contribute to professional astronomy research under the training of astrophysicist Dr. Kevin Green of the University of New Haven.

Students will work with the WAS team to collect, analyze and submit research-grade data to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

There are 3 options, based on course length and cost. Click here for more information.

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I know less than nothing about dog shows.

So when alert “06880” reader Chris Grimm sent me a video clip about Gryphon (click here), I had to ask for details.

Turns out that’s his dog. He competes in agility.

His partner — Chris’, not Gryphon’s — handles the dog during runs. The Westminster Kennel Club hosts a big agility trial — the Westminster Masters Agility Championship — which ended Tuesday night.

Gryphon’s Standard run begins at the 12:00 mark in the video below.

Chris reports: “He froze a bit at the weave polls and Leslie took a spill by the tunnel, but Gryphon did a great job of finishing.”

In the video below, Gryphon’s jumpers run starts after 12:30. “Except for wandering off to say hello, it was a good run,” Chris says. “I can’t believe he got his Q for that.

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Congratulations to Jessica Bram!

The founder of Westport Writers’ Workshop, and noted memoir and creative nonfiction workshop instructor, has just practiced what she preaches.

Her new memoir, “West End Avenue,” has just been published.

Amazon describes it:

A young girl’s world is upended when her divorced mother of 3 marries a widowed father of 4.

Set against the backdrop of Manhattan’s Upper West Side, this evocative memoir traces the uneasy transformation of a blended household – where strangers become siblings bound by shared trauma, quiet acts of loyalty, and the unspoken bonds forged in childhood.

Click here for more information, and to order.

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Orthopedic surgeon Dr. William Conaway was this week’s Westport Rotary Club guest speaker. Among his topics: the growing role of robotics in his specialty.

Dr. William Conaway (Photo/Dave Matlow)

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Westport Police made 4 custodial arrests between January 28 and February 3.

A 28-year-old Westport man was charged with interfering with an officer, following a complaint that he verbally threated an employee at Whole Foods. He fled, but was located nearby, and taken into custody based on repeated resistance to requests to stay away from the store.

A 64-year-old Hamden man was charged with larceny and criminal trespass, following an investigation into the theft of $110.31 of energy drinks from Stop & Shop. He had been formally warned earlier not to return to the store. He was held on a $25,000 bond.

A 53-year-old Bridgeport man was charged with failure to appear, after panhandling on the I-95 northbound ramp. He was held on a $25,000 bond.

A 28-year-old Westport man was charged with failure to appear, after being held in Pennsylvania on an unrelated matter. He was held on a $15,000 bond.

Westport Police also issued these citations:

  • Texting while driving: 14 citations
  • Traveling unreasonably fast: 11
  • Failure to renew registration: 11
  • Operating an unregistered motor vehicle: 7
  • Failure to obey stop sign: 7
  • Distracted driving: 2
  • Failure to obey traffic control signals: 2
  • Speeding in a school zone, 2nd offense: 1
  • Speeding in a school zone: 1
  • Speeding: 1
  • Traveling too fast for conditions: 1
  • Failure to drive in the proper lane: 1
  • Failure to grant right of way: 1
  • Improper turn: 1
  • Unsafe backing: 1
  • Operating a motor vehicle under suspension: 1
  • Violation of readable license plates: 1
  • Failure to return license plates: 1
  • Improper use of markers: 1
  • Operating a motor vehicle without minimum insurance: 1
  • Failure to reinstate license within 60 days: 1
  • Failure to comply with state traffic commission regulations: 1

Lots of license plate citations recently. That’s no laughing matter.

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Because the heaviest snow usually falls during in February, Indigenous tribes of the North and East called this month’s full moon the “snow moon.”

When it rose the other day, there was indeed snow on the ground — from January.

Candice Cardenas snapped today’s “Westport … Naturally” image above Old Road.

(Photo/Candice Cardenas)

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And finally … in honor of Tom Petty’s daughter’s appearance at VersoFest (story above):

(From dog shows to outer space, “06880” is “where Westport meets the world.” If you’re a part of our online community — and you’re reading this, so you are — please click here to support us. Thanks!)

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12 Comments

Posted in Downtown, Library, Police, Politics, Weather

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Jessica Bram’s Invocation

Posted on June 4, 2022 | 4 comments

Each month, a different Westporter gives an invocation before the RTM meeting.

Most are earnest, but unmemorable. (Trust me, I know: I’ve given one myself.)

Last month, Jessica Bram departed from the usual aren’t-we-all-lucky-to-live-in-Westport platitudes. Instead — peaking directly to her colleagues — the RTM member confronted important issues head-on.

I asked Jessica if I could post her words here, so au audience greater than a few dozen legislators and local policy wonks could see — and reflect — on them. Here’s her invocation:

I moved to Westport over 24 years ago. A single mother when I arrived, I didn’t know a soul here. I raised 3 sons who now have successful lives because they went through our extraordinary Westport Public Schools – that school system that we are here to talk about tonight.

Jessica Bram

(Incidentally, I will mention that one of my sons married his Staples High School girlfriend— he went to Bedford, she to Coleytown—  and they just had their second child.)

When Coleytown Middle School was shut down, I remember saying – because our school system is so critical in this town—that this was the single worst thing that ever happened to Westport in my 24-year memory.

To lose an entire middle school … to be forced to cram one entire school population in with another! Remember what a crisis that was? The worst that could ever happen.

Then came COVID.

And instead of being upset because our kids were in crowded classrooms after Coleytown moved in with Bedford (remember we were upset because so many had to have lunch so early?), now there was COVID. And now all our kids had to stay home from school.

Our whole town changed. Businesses failed, people lost jobs, restaurants shut down. Perhaps worst of all, we couldn’t be together.

Two years later, here we are, at our RTM meeting, still on Zoom.

Yes, we disagree on so many things. We all have opinions here (as you know I have opinions on everything, you’ve all heard them).

But let’s think about what our differences are about, and the values that they reflect.

We argued about using ARPA funds for beach repair. But wasn’t that about protecting the environment? Being responsible stewards of our shoreline, our town’s greatest asset?

Yes, we fight about gas-powered blowers. But isn’t that because each of us wants to hold so tightly on to the Westport that we all came here for, the homes and lives we built for our families, regardless of whether that’s quiet afternoons or beautiful lawns?

Yes, we have argued for and against offering public transportation. But what a gift we received from that conflict! That gift of having received over 100 heartfelt emails — each one different, each expressive, none of them boiler plate.

I learned so much that I didn’t know about … what it’s like to have an infant at home and only one car… what it’s like to be a worn-out commuter.  So because of that conflict we got to know so much about our neighbors’ lives, in personal, truthful ways.

The Wheels2U debate elicited many personal emails and phone calls.

We argue vehemently about P&Z issues such as affordable housing, 8-30g, and the zoning problems that that legislation causes. But although we may vehemently disagree about zoning issues, we do respect our town bodies that allow our disagreements to be spoken aloud and acted on in orderly, non-combative ways.

One thing I do know is that regardless of how we feel about 8-30-g, we all do care about, and have compassion for, families, either struggling or wealthy families, who all want to have safe, affordable homes where we can raise our children.

And don’t we all support our organizations such as Homes with Hope, that are working so hard to end homelessness — whether we offer that support philanthropically, or by cooking and serving lasagna in our newly renovated Gillespie Center?

Let me point out that we are, after all, a town that has a youth center, and homeless shelter, a block away from a Tiffany’s. All of which says something about what we in Westport care about. Not just the homeless shelter. But Tiffany’s too, because it does speak of the lives we unapologetically want for our children.

The Gillespie Center is a few feet away from Tiffany. (Photo/June Rose Whittaker)

Yes, some of us cling furiously to our causes and our pet issues and our political affiliations.

Yes, we may disagree on so many things.

Yes, our RTM meetings can at times stretch agonizingly long into the night.

But let’s remember who we are.

With all our disagreements, in all those exhausting, contentious, boring RTM meetings, we are all doing it just to make things right.

Let’s think about the values and principles that we share at the heart of it all – our families, our first responders, our overworked teachers. And yes, even our noisy neighbors.

Let’s remind ourselves – and applaud ourselves for — living in a town not of things and real estate, but of principles. That what we’re here for – especially those of us on the RTM — are principles of honesty and fairness —and what’s really important in our troubled world.

Because that’s who we are.

And know that in the end, we care for, respect, and yes, even  a little bit, love each other.

RTM members march in the 2018 Memorial Day parade.

4 Comments

Posted in Education, Local politics, Transportation

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Roundup: Jazz, Food, Black History, More

Posted on September 5, 2020 | 5 comments

Outdoor entertainment returned to MoCA Westport last night. A socially distanced crowd enjoyed Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Alexa Tarantino Quartet.

More concerts will be announced soon.

Outdoors at MoCA.

With food insecurity still a serious issue, the Westport Woman’s Club Food Closet is grateful for a nice donation from Westport National Bank.

Any organizations or family can donate food to neighbors in need. Bring non-perishable donations to the WWC 44 Imperial Avenue) from 9 a.m. to onoon on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. If the clubhouse is locked, call 203-227-4240.

Monetary donations are also welcome. Click here, or send a check made out to Westport Woman’s Club to WWC, 44 Imperial Avenue, Westport, CT  06880.

At the Westport Woman’s Club food pantry (from left); Wendy McKeon, WWC food closet co-chair; Robin Clark, WWC member and Westport National Bank vice president; Selma Blue, WNB head teller.

The “hidden history of Black Westport” will be visible to Westporters next Saturday (September 12, 9:30 to 10:30 a.m.)

As a follow-up to the Westport Museum of History & Culture’s “Remembered: The History of African Americans in Westport” exhibit, guides will lead tour groups (maximum of 10 people) throughout downtown.

They’ll describe local history, from enslaved people to soldiers, sailors, activists, artists, and respected residents, through existing buildings and long destroyed sites.

Tickets are $10. Reservations are required; click here to register. Foe moew information, email programs@westporthistory.org.

Aarti Khosla needs help in providing chocolate hearts to every Westport and Weston educator, as a show of thanks for all they do. 10% of all proceeds benefit another educational institution: Mercy Learning Center.

Click here to purchase hearts ($8 each). You can also stop by Aarti’s store, Le Rouge Chocolates (190 Main Street).

 

The final (and 15th) #FridayFlowers are on display at the Compo Beach lifeguard station. The Westport Garden Club — sponsor of the summer-long floral project — is grateful to the guards, and everyone at Westport Parks & Rec — for keeping our beaches safe and fun.

Pictured below (from left): David Levy, Noah Ross, Mia Parkes, Ella Thompson and Avery Tucker.

(Photo/Topsy Siderowf)

RTM representative and Westport Writers Workshop founder Jessica Bram undergoes brain surgery at Yale University Hospital this morning.

Doctors will drain excess hydration to reverse motor, cognitive and memory impairment resulting from a recent fall.

Jessica sends affection and high regard to the Westport community, past and current writing students, RTM colleagues, and Webb Road neighbors.

And finally … today is National Be Late for Something Day. I’ll have a song for you later. Maybe.

5 Comments

Posted in Beach, History, Local business, Organizations, People

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Roundup: Poet Laureates; Jessica Bram; More

Posted on July 19, 2020 | 4 comments

A new video called Connecticut Poets Respond features current and past town poet laureates reading their works online. They’re “responding” to the current state of the world (pandemic, the environment … you get the idea.)

Westport’s own laureate, Diane Lowman, is one of the featured poets.

Fellow laureate David Bibbey of Woodbury produced it. Westporters know him through his video work at the Westport Library. Click below to see:

Rozanne Gates reports that Jessica Bram — Westport’s much-loved author/writing teacher/NPR commentator — needs our support.

She is recovering from an almost-fatal fall. Cards of encouragement will help her see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Her address is 32 Webb Road, Westport, CT 06880. Let’s all write to our writer!

Jessica Bram

And finally … of course:

 

4 Comments

Posted in Arts, Environment, People

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Christine Pakkala’s Nightmare, Prize-Winning Trip

Posted on May 18, 2013 | 4 comments

There’s a lot to learn at the Westport Writers’ Workshop. But it’s not all about the words.

Christine Pakkala has taken workshops, and been mentored, at the Sylvan Road center since 2008. Beyond important writing skills, she’s gained confidence. And learned to put herself waaay out there.

She did it so well that her essay — “The Vacation Nightmare That Changed My Life” — won 1st place in the prestigious Ladies’ Home  Journal writing contest. Chosen from thousands of submission, it earned her $3,000 — plus publication in the June issue.

Christine Pakkala (Photo by Kristin Hoebermann)

Christine Pakkala (Photo by Kristin Hoebermann)

Christine wrote grippingly about her fear of flying. She finally overcame it in order to spend Christmas in Costa Rica with her husband, attorney and author Cameron Stracher, and their kids (Simon, then 13, and Lulu, 10).

The vacation turned grim when Cam collapsed after a run. The only CAT-scan machine in the country was in San Jose — and the only way to get there was on a tiny plane.

Back in Westport — after a long commercial flight — the couple learned that a major artery was 90 percent blocked. He had survived only because his runner’s heart was so strong.

After a stent and medication, he’s back running. Christine has flown half a dozen times since then. And, of course, she writes.

A former Fulbright Scholar who received her Master of Fine Arts degree from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, she says, “I’ve had Pulitzer Prize-winning writing teachers. But the best advice came from Jessica Bram and Suzanne Hoover” — 2 of her Westport Writers’ Workshop teachers. “They taught me to first listen to myself, then listen to others.”

Now others are listening to Christine. Last month she taught students how to break into children’s books. She should know: She’s got a multi-book publishing deal.

Christine got interested in writing for kids when Simon was in kindergarten. Her tales incorporated his classmates as characters. She read them aloud, and teachers encouraged her to do more.

She listened. She wrote. She branched out from kindergarten to middle grade fiction, and now to a harrowing but healing account of her terrible trip to Costa Rica.

Which — thanks to confidence gained through the Westport Writers’ Workshop — is a prize-winning essay, shared with Ladies’ Home Journal readers everywhere.

Westport Writers Workshop

(To read Christine’s essay, click here.)

4 Comments

Posted in Entertainment, Organizations, People

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Avoid The Internet!

Posted on July 15, 2010 | 8 comments

It may seem counter-intuitive to post a notice of this event here in cyberspace, but we live in weird world.

So here goes:

The Westport Writers’ Workshop has announced “Writing Hours Unplugged.”  Called “a nurturing program for writers who seek a quiet space in a setting conducive to creativity, free of the distractions of the Internet,” it takes place at the Workshop (3 Sylvan Road South) most days of the week, beginning at 8 a.m.  (Check email early!)

Writers can unplug when workshops are not in session — including Sundays, the traditional day of rest.

Not a workspace the Westport Writers' Workshop wants to see.

In addition to no whirring computers or chirping cellphones, the facility offers overflowing bookshelves, bright windows and stacks of resources.  (Plus a kitchen.)

The lack of internet access includes wireless.  Westport Writers’ Workshop founder Jessica Bram says “the single greatest impediment to productive writing is the distraction provided by access to the Internet.”

Of course, there is no such thing as free non-internet access.  Writing Hours Unplugged is available only to Workshop members ($150 per year; includes program discounts and free admission to speaker events).  Memberships are available to “any writer or would-be writer in the community.”

“06880” likes the theory of unplugging, and writing in glorious, undistracted, quiet, contemplative, sylvan solitude.

But how would we know when The Dude, Jeffxs or any of our other fans readers comments on this post?

(For more information about the Westport Writers’ Workshop and Writing Hours Unplugged, click on www.westportwritersworkshop.com, or call 203-227-3250.)

8 Comments

Posted in Organizations, People, Westport life

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