It seems a bit odd to me that the most vibrant party of this pallid month takes place in Barnard Town Hall.
BarnArts holds its 14th annual Masquerade Jazz & Funk Winter Music Carnival from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. on Saturday. Maybe there are better private parties, but is there a better one that welcomes all comers? Doubtful.
Headlining this all-ages event is Zikina, a band led by Gideon Ampeire, a native of Uganda now living in Massachusetts who performs on traditional instruments he makes himself. The band filters Ampeire’s sensibilities through American jazz and rock instrumentation to create a transporting global sound that’s eminently danceable.
Opening for Zikina are the Michael Zsoldos Quartet and the Dartmouth Jazz Quintet.
This event is designed to be all-encompassing, so tickets include access to a taco bar, non-alcoholic drinks and activities for kids young and old, including a photo booth and a mask-making station. Sliding scale tickets ($25-40 for adults, $15-25 for students, free for kids 6 and under) are available through the BarnArts website, barnarts.org, or at the door, payable by cash or check.
Another kind of trip
On the internet it’s hard to know what day it is, but if you’re reading this in print it will be clear that when I say “today,” I’m talking about Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026, because you’re holding that day’s paper in your hands.
At 4:30 today, Michael Lesy, author of the classic nonfiction book “Wisconsin Death Trip,” reads from his work in 105 Dartmouth Hall at Dartmouth College. “Wisconsin Death Trip” was Lesy’s first book and is widely considered a classic. That book, and many of his others, used photographs from the 19th and 20th centuries as primary source material.
Lesy taught literary journalism at Hampshire College from 1990 to 2018, where his students included author, journalist and Dartmouth professor Jeff Sharlet. The reading is sponsored by Dartmouth’s Department of English and Creative Writing and is part of the Cleopatra Mathis Poetry and Prose Reading Series. It’s free and open to the public.
Influential reporters
Speaking of Jeff Sharlet, he will be at Woodstock’s Norman Public Library at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 24, in conversation with Woodstock author Julia Cooke. For her third book, “Starry and Restless: Three Women Who Changed Work, Writing, and the World, “Cooke examined the lives of three groundbreaking reporters, Rebecca West, Emily Hahn and Martha Gellhorn, who had a hand in transforming journalism in the 20th century. The Yankee Bookshop will be on hand with copies of the book.
Civil rights
“Letters from Anne and Martin,” an event at noon on Sunday, Feb. 22 at the Quechee Club, draws parallels between the writings of Anne Frank and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
This two-person performance put together by the Anne Frank Center brings together parts of Frank’s diary, written while she was hiding from the Nazis, and King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, written in a different kind of captivity.
Scheduled from noon to 1 p.m., the event is sponsored by the Quechee Club’s DEI Council, and is free and open to the public. The event also is available via Zoom. For the link, email Brandon Chiasson at brandon.chiasson@quecheeclub.com.
Music composition
Congrats to Upper Valley composer Travis Ramsey, whose commission for ChoralArt, Maine’s foremost choral ensemble, will have its premiere later this year with the Portland Symphony Orchestra and a full chorus of 80 to 100 singers. The commission is a commemoration of the Great Fire of Portland, which took place July 4, 1866.
For more information about the concert, go to portlandsymphony.com, and for more information about Ramsey, read this 2023 Valley News piece about a performance of his work in Toronto.
Minding the store
George and Susie Fraser, whose family has operated Dan & Whit’s in Norwich for many decades, will be at the Norwich Historical Society from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday. The store turned 70 in 2025 and the historical society has an exhibit about its long history.