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The 29th Nantucket Film Festival Kicks Off Wednesday
The 29th edition of the Nantucket Film Festival runs from June 19th -24th, highlighted by a number of notable films and special guests, including documentary filmmaker Ken Burns. Among other films, the opening day of NFF is set to feature the festival’s 13th-straight Disney/Pixar film, “Inside Out 2,” and Josh Margolin’s critically acclaimed “Thelma,” starring Academy Award nominee June Squibb as the 93-year-old Thelma Post.
The North Atlantic Right Whales Deserve Our Best Effort to Save them, and the High-Speed Ferry Plan Doesn't Seem to Be That
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is pressing ahead with its plan to ban Fast Ferries between the Massachusetts mainland and Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket between November 1st and May 30. I first wrote about this proposed regulation in the fall of 2022. Nantucket Current reported this week on the...
Nantucket's forever shifting sands
Birdsong, five in the morning. A sign that my neighborhood — a relatively new affordable housing subdivision — has matured. My neighbors’ trees provide plenty of places for songbirds to perch. My own trees are less inspired, their thinning leaves looking instead like they are permanently on the cusp of an invisible autumn. The rosemary I planted six years ago towers over the deck, thriving on a steady diet of sandy soil and benign neglect.
Historic Nantucket Dildo Coming To The Big Screen At Film Festival
In the winter of 1979, Nantucketer Barry Thurston was working inside an old house on Pine Street that dates back to the 1700s when he made a startling discovery. “He called up my parents and said ‘I found something in your chimney,” recalled Lizzie Congdon, whose mother Connie, and late father Tom Congdon bought the home that year. “They said ‘What is it?’ And he said… ‘I’ll show you when I see you’.”
Current Athlete Of The Month: Shea Dwyer
The 2023-2024 high school sports year has come and gone. The year came to an exciting end following the boys lacrosse team’s first state championship in program history and the first state title for a Nantucket sports team since 2011. But now, all eyes will shift to the 2024-2025...
NOAA Researches Encounter Over 160 Whales During Aerial Survey
MARTHA’S VINEYARD/NANTUCKET – Researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, were treated to a fascinating sight this month when aerial crews sighted over 160 whales during a flyover above Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. During the flyover, the team recorded dozens of sei whales, humpback...
Deed Restrictions Or Bust
To the editor: Nantucket has one of the most advanced housing crises in the country. The Steamship Authority is cutting service by 7 percent, all five of the firefighters hired in 2018 left, and the latest wave of teachers are leaving the public school. Employers of critical services can't find housing for their staff. It’s one thing for a restaurant to close on Mondays. It’s another for the ferry to drop a trip. Migrating whales aren’t the only threat to ferry service. We don’t have the benefit of a cautionary tale pushing us in the right direction on housing policy. If we don’t figure it out, we will be the example others point to.
AAN hires Francine Balling as director of finance and operations
(June 18, 2024) The Artists Association of Nantucket has hired Francine Balling as its director of finance and operations. Balling will oversee the AAN's financial and business concerns, as well as daily operations, and will work closely with executive director Tracey Sears to maintain the organization’s healthy fiscal standing.
NPD liquor-license compliance checks coming
(June 18, 2024) The Nantucket Police Department will conduct compliance checks at businesses holding liquor licenses over the next several months. The department's alcohol enforcement program includes service-compliance checks and reverse stings. Those found in violation will be charged criminally.
Brent Young
Brent Barlow Young passed away at the age of 80 on Friday, June 7, 2024 from cancer. Although Brent was born in Utah, the East Coast and the ocean became his forever home after being lured away after college. Brent discovered Nantucket in the early 1970s after a friend recommended he should come and visit this beautiful island. At the time, he was teaching high school English in Maine, and so he came for the summer. Brent worked the produce department at the old A&P.
Unusually Large Number of Whales Spotted, Including Multiple Endangered Species, off Northeast U.S. Coasts
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has reported 161 sightings of whales last month, representing seven different whale species. The sightings, recorded on May 25, took place off the northeastern U.S. Coasts, near Martha’s Vineyard and southeast of Nantucket. According to NOAA, the sightings included an unusually high number of whale species, particularly endangered whales.
Who was Eunice Ross? The Black girl who spurred the first equal education law in the US
Hundreds of students from Nantucket crossed the stage Friday, wearing caps and gowns to celebrate their graduation. But, before Nantucket High School seniors received their diplomas, one student, who the town deprived of an education, finally got her own. Eunice Ross, an African American teenager who was integral in Massachusetts’...
Large concentration of sei spotted near the Vineyard
Over 160 whales were spotted just south of the Vineyard and Nantucket and 7 different whale species were identified during a single survey as reported by marine observers last week. Of these species spotted was the sei whale, with 93 found, one of the highest concentrations of that particular species...
Photo Gallery: NHS Senior Parade
(June 17, 2024) The annual Nantucket High School senior car parade was held Monday afternoon, as members of the Class of 2024 made their way from the school, through town and back. I&M sports editor Jamie Cushman took these photos.
Met’s “Moby-Dick” opera preview coming to the Dreamland July 30
(June 20, 2024) The Nantucket Historical Association and Dreamland Theater will co-host a preview of The Metropolitan Opera’s 2025 production of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s "Moby-Dick" Tuesday, July 30 at the Dreamland. The one-night-only prelude will feature the inside story of the opera’s creation from composer and...
Rayport, De Molina vye for at-large NP&EDC seat
(June 17, 2024) Either Abby De Molina, a Nantucket Historic Commission member and Planning Board alternate, or Hillary Rayport, an outspoken critic of municipal planning practices, will be appointed as an at-large member of the Nantucket Planning and Economic Commission next week. The seat is being left open because former...
Town launches new “Click and Fix” app
(June 17, 2024) The town's new Click & Fix Nantucket app will help streamline the process for residents to report maintenance issues and request government services. This user-friendly platform aims to enhance community engagement and ensure that concerns and requests are addressed more efficiently.
“Thelma” opens 2024 Nantucket Film Festival Wednesday
(June 17, 2024) The 2024 Nantucket Film Festival, running through Monday, opens Wednesday with “Thelma,” starring Academy Award nominee June Squibb, Richard Roundtree and Parker Posey, which follows 93-year-old Thelma Post as she sets out on a quest for justice after being scammed out of $10,000. It will screen again June 23.
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