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STORIES
Our stories are all about the interesting people, places and things in Maplewood.
Read some here or page through our online issues.
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FROM RUN-D.M.C. TO MAYIM BIALIK by Donny Levit
Dr. Mike finds inspiration in his hardcore band life It all started about two decades ago when a Craigslist ad caught the eye of Mike...
ellencdonker
Nov 26, 20216 min read


OHEB SHALOM WELCOMES NEW CLERGY TEAM by Malia Rulon Herman
It’s all-female, but that’s beside the point Congregants of Oheb Shalom, a Conservative Jewish temple in South Orange, gathered this...
ellencdonker
Oct 1, 20214 min read


THE HARLEM CULTURAL FESTIVAL GETS NOTICED DECADES LATER IN QUESTLOVE'S “SUMMER OF SOUL” Donny Levit
Maplewood’s Lizzy McGlynn helps guide the film’s context August 15, 1969. You may not be able to remember the date, but you certainly...
ellencdonker
Oct 1, 20217 min read


MY VINYL LIFE WITH THE STEREO KIDS By Donny Levit
After too many months of online learning, here’s how our family went analogue again I admit this sounds like a plot point right out of a...
ellencdonker
Aug 13, 20213 min read


SOLVING A CONUNDRUM By Sara Courtney
A CHS student collaboration creates a video-game hit When Wesley Sappington got the idea to create a video game, he did what any budding...
ellencdonker
Aug 13, 20216 min read


FROM DIZZY GILLESPIE TO ARETHA FRANKLIN, JOHN LEE IS A SOUTH ORANGE JAZZ ALL-STAR By Donny Levit
The bass player and Grammy-winning producer knows how to play it local Let’s take a moment to revisit Thursday, February 27, 2020. John...
ellencdonker
Jun 11, 20217 min read


A HOME FOR ALL SEASONS By Tia Swanson
While the pandemic raged, houses of faith reached out to their most vulnerable members In the months before the pandemic, Ben Hack, who...
ellencdonker
Jun 11, 20214 min read


MARK MURPHY'S MUSIC SCHOOL! LIVE! FROM THE BASEMENT! by Sara Courtney
The shutdown made them bored. The music kept them connected. Just a few months ago, before masks and hand sanitizer and the words “remote...
ellencdonker
Aug 14, 20206 min read


GETTING LOST IN THE PANDEMIC SUPERMARKET by Donny Levit
My first COVID-19 shopping spree sets the pace Shopping list. Check. Shopping bags. Check. Travel-size bottle of hand sanitizer. Check....
ellencdonker
Jun 19, 20203 min read


EVER HEARD OF DJANGO? by Donny Levit Photography by Julia Maloof Verderosa
Guitarist Stéphane Wrembel will make you a devotee At first listen, classical piano, Pink Floyd, and gypsy jazz possess vastly different...
ellencdonker
May 1, 20204 min read


THE FULL SCORE ON A BROADWAY COMPOSER by Donny Levit
Maplewood’s Russ Kaplan creates music and musicians He’s a quadruple threat: a Broadway composer with several new projects in the works,...
ellencdonker
Nov 21, 20196 min read


A GLORIOUS COLLISION OF IDEAS by Elaine Durbach
The SouthNEXT Festival celebrates different views. Right up there in Angela Kariotis’s website title you can see her aim:...
ellencdonker
Oct 3, 20195 min read


LISTEN UP! MAPLEWOOD IS RADIO-SILENT NO LONGER by Donny Levit
It all started out with a radio boom box and a Barbie disco record player.
donny levit
Jun 11, 20195 min read


STRUMMIN' ON THE OLD WASHTUB CELLO by Ellen Kahaner
Could a metal washtub do more than hold wet laundry? Imagine a gourd the size of a bowling ball or an old metal washtub – the sort meant...
ellencdonker
Mar 8, 20194 min read
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