Vote for Favorite Bike Rack Design for Kingston

Think creatively about public streetscapes by helping to choose the design of the bike racks to be installed along Cornell Street as part of the Kingston Connectivity Project. The KINGSTO+N Bike Rack Design Competition, a partnership between Live Well Kingston and O+ Festival, will add a new element of distinctive public art to Kingston streets.

The five finalists are Kathleen Griffin, Paolo Vidali of Hidden Gears, Keith Carollo, Rick Whelan and Madelyn Erb of Ditto! Design! and Hugo Jule-Quintanilla. The finalists are entitled to wellness visits in the pop-up clinic during the Oct. 6-8, 2017 O+ Festival in Kingston. The winning designer will receive a Wellness Clinic visit and $500.

To vote, click on your favorite bike rack design image, which will bring you to a new window, and then click on the “thumbs up.” You can vote for one design or as many as all five designs, but you cannot vote more than once for any particular design. Online voting concludes at the end of the day on Wednesday, March 29.

Inaugural O+ Haverhill Features Cycling, Yoga and Wellness Classes, Literary SALO+N

O+ Haverhill audiences wearing all-access wristbands (available via donation) on Saturday, May 6th are invited to experience a variety of wellness classes and a Literary SALO+N in addition to extensive art and music offerings.

The day begins at the Better Block location, where Riverside Cycle will lead bike rides for avid cyclists and families of all experience levels.

Giving Tree Yoga and Wellness hosts EXPLO+RE, a mini wellness retreat within the larger O+ Festival celebration. The daylong offerings include Kundalini Yoga, Reiki Restore and a Gong Bath.

“All of our instructors have volunteered to offer specific yoga classes that are healing and restorative in nature,” says Suzanne Borgioli, owner of Giving Tree. “Our wishes are that everyone who walks through our doors will then walk away with an extraordinary experience and some valuable tools to encourage a lifestyle design for their family and for their own personal wellness.”

Meanwhile, Ocasio’s will be offering a martial arts class for anyone wearing an all-access O+ Haverhill wristband.

Beginning at 3 p.m. with an interactive artist trading card make and swap, the SALO+N at Battle Grounds highlights the thriving literary community of noted authors, aspiring writers and bibliophiles in Haverhill and neighboring cities.

The SALO+N continues with Lawrence-based The Common Sage writing group, which provides a space “for the expression of thoughts and sharing of stories.”

Then at 5 p.m. poet Susan LaFortune will host a Spoken Word open mic event during which participants are encouraged to share what inspires and connects them to the human spirit through rhyme or free-verse.

“I’m hoping the SALO+N will coax new voices to come out and be noticed,” LaFortune says.

Author James A. Moore brings Literary Voices, a chance to hear from several writers in the New England area, each with a different approach to writing, to the SALO+N at 6 p.m. Writers including Hillary Monahan, Matt Bechtal and Kristin Dearborn will read and answer questions about their stories and inspirations.

The Literary SALO+N concludes with Writer’s Coffeehouse New England. Moore and author Christopher Golden invite writers of all experience levels to participate in a conversation about the business and craft of writing.

LaFortune says the SALO+N perfectly aligns with the O+ mission of exchanging the art of medicine for the medicine of art.

“I’m involved with O+ because I believe in both, the power of medicine and the power of art,” she says. “Before I became a writer I was a therapeutic massage therapist. The festival encompasses everything we know about what the body needs to stay healthy and happy. The medical participants of O+Festival remind us that health is still human. Haverhill gains the opportunity to not only showcase some amazing talent, but also some amazing heart.”

O+ Haverhill Partners With Better Block

Better Block is coming to Haverhill, MA! A block of Merrimack Street between Main and How streets will be transformed with more beauty, more life, according to Better Block organizers.

Why?

“A better block makes better neighbors. And a better local economy. A better block is more local business. More time outdoors. More beauty, more life. More bicycles, more foot traffic. A better block is more friends, more laughter, more conversations. A better block is a beginning. It spreads. It compounds. It changes everything. Better cities start with better blocks. Let’s get started!”

Haverhill Better Block aims to combine local art and culture programs, including O+ Haverhill, with pop-up infrastructure aimed at improving quality of life for all.

 

March 30 Party Reveals Bike Rack Design Winner

YO+U’RE invited to the Design A Better Bike Rack Final Vote & Reveal Party on Thursday, March 30 from 6:30- 8 p.m. at The Lace Mill, 165 Cornell St. in Kingston.

The evening, which is free and open to the public, includes:
•Exhibition of the five bike rack design finalists.
•In-person voting for your favorite design
•Screening & discussion of “Groningen: The World’s Cycling City”
•Vote tally & reveal of the winning design, which will be fabricated for installation along Cornell Street

Refreshments will be served.

At 5:30 p.m. join Bike-Friendly Kingston for an easy pre-party ride that includes stops at O+ murals. Meet at the front entrance of the Lace Mill. Dress appropriately for the weather. If you plan to bike home after the party please have working front and rear lights.

The bike rack design competition is a partnership between O+ Festival, Live Well Kingston, Bike-Friendly Kingston, Complete Streets Advisory Council and the Kingston Greenline.

This competition was made possible by a grant through APA NY Metro as part of the Plan4Health program.

Announcing O+ Poughkeepsie

The inaugural O+ Poughkeepsie, a festival of art, music and wellness, takes place Aug. 5 on the block of Main Street between Academy and Market streets. Participating visual artists and musicians will receive complimentary health and wellness care from art-loving volunteer providers.

The lead sponsor is WMC Health and confirmed partners include: Changepoint Church (pop-up wellness clinic site), Mid-Hudson Heritage Center, Arts Mid-Hudson, Institute for Family Health, Hudson River Health Care and The City of Poughkeepsie.

Corene Concepcion-Rivera has been named festival director of O+ Poughkeepsie. Poet Gold, the 2017 Dutchess County Poet Laureate, will serve as the festival’s music coordinator.

MidHudson Regional Hospital will host a Wellness EXPO+ for the community during O+ Poughkeepsie.

Want to volunteer your time to the planning of this inaugural community celebration? Email: cconcepcion@opositivefestival.org

Poughkeepsie is the second O+ Festival to take place in the Hudson Valley. The eighth O+ Kingston, where the national nonprofit O+ Festival is headquartered, takes place Oct. 6-8.

The nonprofit’s first festival of 2017 is the inaugural O+ Haverhill, which takes place in Haverhill, Mass., on May 6.

O+ Festivals have previously been celebrated in San Francisco, Petaluma, Calif., Chicago and The Bronx.