RED BANK: A NEIGHBOR’S 9/11 STORY

Sep 8, 2021

John Grandits’ account of his neighbor’s escape from the World Trade Center is for sale at River Road Books for $1, with proceeds going to volunteer fire and first aid. Below, Drew Irving. (Photo above by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

On the morning of September 11, 2001, Red Bank resident and children’s author John Grandits could see his neighbor Louise Irving in an agitated state on her back porch, her sister’s arms wrapped around her.

Then he learned what was happening in New York City, and immediately remembered: Louise’s husband, Drew, worked at the World Trade Center.

September 8, 2021 - 12:30 pm |

RED BANK: LIBRARY PLANS PUBLIC SURVEY

Jan 30, 2020

The library, which opened in the onetime home of manufacturer Sigmund Eisner in 1937, is now looking ahead to 2026. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

The Red Bank Public Library plans to solicit public input as it develops a new five-year strategic plan, its board of trustees announced Thursday. More →

January 30, 2020 - 10:20 am |

RED BANK: STORY WALK GETS AN UPGRADE

Jul 24, 2018

Along with the weekly summer movie, Riverside Gardens Park in Red Bank now features a permanent installation of the Story Walk pathway instituted by the borough library. And it’s gotten an upgrade from its first two editions.

July 24, 2018 - 10:30 am |

RED BANK: LIBRARY DIRECTOR CHECKS OUT

Jul 3, 2018

Red Bank library staff and patrons held a sendoff party last week for the retirement of director Elizabeth McDermott, seen above speaking with public utilities director Cliff Keen.

Monmouth County Freeholder John Curley, a former Red Bank councilman, presented McDermott with a county proclamation recognizing her for, among other accomplishments, leading the library through the most turbulent period in its 81-year history.

July 3, 2018 - 9:02 am |

RED BANK: LIBRARY DIRECTOR TO RETIRE

May 11, 2018

Elizabeth McDeromott, center, at the 2015 Red Bank Mayor’s Ball. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

Elizabeth McDermott, who guided the Red Bank Public Library through perhaps the most turbulent chapter of its 81-year history, will retire at the end of June.

An ex-software industry consultant who changed careers well into adulthood, McDermott announced her retirement in the spring issue of the library’s newsletter, out this week.

May 11, 2018 - 12:00 pm |

RBR TEACHER NOTED FOR LITERARY BLOG

Aug 30, 2017

Gretna Wilkinson. (Click to enlarge)

Press release from Red Bank Regional High

Gretna Wilkinson, Red Bank Regional’s (RBR) acclaimed creative writing teacher, was recently notified that her website and literary blog, the Raven’s Perch, was selected as one of the top 100 literary blogs on the web by Feedspot.com, a website aggregator.

August 30, 2017 - 8:00 am |

FAIR HAVEN: BEACH READ ON RIVER ROAD

Aug 1, 2017

Best-selling novelist Patti Callahan Henry comes to River Road Books Wednesday with her latest, ‘The Bookshop at Water’s End.’

The swimsuits and summer gear may have already been supplanted on store shelves by back-to-school items and other mellow-harshing signifiers of autumn’s advance, but at River Road Books in Fair Haven, the season of the “summer read” remains very much in effect, with more than enough sun-dappled and seabreeze-kissed titles to fuel a thousand oceanfront excursions.

The last bastion of independently owned bookstores on the Greater Red Bank Green continues its decade-plus history of guest-author appearances when best-selling novelist Patti Callahan Henry drops by Wednesday evening with something of an affirmation that summer, and its literary contents, remain alive and well.

August 1, 2017 - 9:00 am |

RED BANK: BOOKMARKS MARK FAVORITES

Jun 16, 2017

St. James first-grader Declan Duffy chose to draw Red Bank’s Molly Pitcher Inn as his favorite place in town, above. Below, the other winners by grade. (Click to enlarge)

[Press release from the Friends of the Red Bank Public Library]

The Sixth Annual Friends oft he Red Bank Public Library Bookmark Contest has announced this year’s winners! At a well-attended party on May 20, the Friends presented the winners with certificates and gift cards to local businesses.

June 16, 2017 - 7:11 am |

RED BANK: SCHOOL TO GET 500 BOOKS

Jun 14, 2017

[Press release from the Office of the Governor, June 9, 2017]

Supporting the development and enhancement of student reading skills, First Lady Mary Pat Christie announced today that Red Bank Primary School in Red Bank is receiving 500 books as part of the 11^th annual Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge. Last year, 43 Governors’ Spouses, Governors and Lieutenant Governors participated as Reading Ambassadors for the summer program.

June 14, 2017 - 8:09 am |

RED BANK: ‘BOBFEST’ OF DYLAN, WAR & PEACE

May 23, 2017

A promo video recaps the history of the annual Bobfest salute to Bob Dylan, which returns to the Count Basie Theatre Thursday night.

When he first offered an impromptu birthday toast to Bob Dylan during a 1999 set at the old Downtown Café in Red Bank, Jersey Shore “saloon singer” supreme Pat Guadagno didn’t harbor any thoughts of making Bobfest an annual thing, let alone an ever-expanding phenomenon with a life and passionate following all its own.

May 23, 2017 - 6:00 am |

LITTLE SILVER: LIBRARY BOOK SALE RETURNS

May 12, 2017

The Friends of the Little Silver Public Library plan to hold their annual sidewalk book sale over two days next week.

May 12, 2017 - 7:00 am |

RED BANK: ADD SOME LOVE TO ‘EPIC’ POEM

Feb 9, 2017

For the past week, a team from Red Bank’s Project Write Now, a nonprofit dedicated to helping community members tap into their creativity through writing, has been handing out forms around town, inviting recipients to share a few words about what they love, and then pass the form to someone else: a friend, a family member or even a complete stranger.

February 9, 2017 - 8:18 am |

RUMSON: ACTOR HELPS MAKE A BOOK ‘SCENE’

Dec 8, 2016

Siobhan Fallon Hogan makes a Saturday morning appearance at Oceanic Library, keyed to a new children’s book collaboration with fellow Rumson resident Lori Oakes.

Last we caught up with her in the pixelated pages of redbankgreen, the busy screen actor and Rumson resident Siobhan Fallon Hogan brought us up to date on a pair of exciting new projects — the M. Night Shyamalan-produced sci-fi TV series Wayward Pines (the third season of which begins filming in spring 2017), and her second self-penned solo stage show, a multi-character tour de farce entitled Acting Out.

December 8, 2016 - 6:10 am |

RED BANK: TIME TO REMEMBER IS WRITE NOW

Nov 25, 2016

The educational programs offered by the nonprofit Project Write Now are the beneficiary of a Night to Remember fundraiser Tuesday night at Two River Theater.

From press materials furnished by DNB Events and Project Write Now

If you’ve wondered about those “I remember…” collection boxes that you may have noticed at select businesses throughout Red Bank, they’ve got a story to tell — or rather, they’ve been placed there to collect the stories that you and your neighbors have to tell.

November 25, 2016 - 4:00 am |

RED BANK: THIRD NOVEL FOR BARTENDER

Aug 9, 2016

When he’s not pulling pints for the clientele of Red Bank’s Dublin House Pub, bartender Brandon Zenner (seen here in 2014) puts in long hours at his laptop, conjuring fictional worlds. His third novel in little more than two years, titled “The After War,” debuts this week. It’s a post-apocalyptic story based on an idea Zenner had almost two decades ago, when he was a 16-year-old student at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional, and it’s available as an e-book here. (Photo above by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

August 9, 2016 - 10:30 am |

SHREWSBURY: “GAS MONEY” GETS HIM HERE

May 20, 2016

It’s a journey that begins in a little place called Saluda, Virginia (population 300), a road trip through physical and spiritual territory that’s limited only by our own storytelling abilities and available Gas Money.

In his book of that title, first-time author Troy Lewis delivers what his promo material calls “a heartwarming, honest narrative that shows how everyday people with whom we come in contact on a daily or occasional basis shape our lives forever.”

And on Saturday, Lewis makes his next stop on that journey with a visit to the the Eastern Branch of the Monmouth County Library in Shrewsbury. More →

May 20, 2016 - 12:00 pm |

RED BANK: YOUNG READER’S A WORLD-BEATER

May 12, 2016

Red Bank Middle School seventh-grader Karina Linares Huerta Karina was honoroed by the Red Bank council Wednesday night for finishing first among 1.7 million students around the globe in the Achieve3000, an online literacy-improvement program.

Karina read and completed 170 specified activities, including 35 in one day, the most of any participant worldwide, to take home the top prize.

Karina attended the council meeting with her mother, Zenaida Huerta, above, and her three younger brothers. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

May 12, 2016 - 11:06 am |

RED BANK: A LITTLE BOOK-LABELING PARTY

Feb 3, 2016

Kate Triggiano, who had a custom-built “little library” built and installed outside her Red Bank home for neighborhood kids last October, plans a book labeling party Thursday from 7 to 9 p.m.

The aim of the event, to be held at Kitch Organic restaurant at 75 Leighton Avenue, is to apply labels to dozens of books donated to the library’s wish list on Amazon, Triggiano said. Participants are asked to bring scissors; kids are welcome if they’re old enough to help.

Why label? “Because we respect the kids and trust them,” said Triggiano. “Because they cost nice people money. And because we don’t want someone taking them and selling them.”

Dubbed the Little Library on Leighton, the mahogany receptacle, built by custom woodworker David Halbout of Middletown, is in front of Triggiano’s home at 22 Leighton, and features children’s and young-adult literature. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

February 3, 2016 - 3:30 pm |

FAIR HAVEN: MIMI AT THE CROSSROADS

Jan 20, 2016

Singer-songwriter-novelist Mimi Cross makes an appearance in Fair Haven Thursday to promote her new work of fiction, “Before Goodbye.” (Click to enlarge)

By TOM CHESEK

“It was great to see everybody,” says Mimi Cross in reference to her performance last weekend at Asbury Park’s Langosta Lounge, part of the annual Light of Day slate of musically minded benefit events. “I haven’t been playing much the past couple of years, and it was like coming home to family.”

Once a frequently sighted fixture on Shore area club stages — and a two-time Asbury Music Award winner for her self-released albums like Monkey Trap — the singer-songwriter soprano has indeed kept a low public profile since she became a mom. It’s an uncharacteristic stance for an artist who can boast of having shared stages with Bruce, Bon Jovi, Bonnie (Raitt), (Jackson) Browne, Lauryn Hill and Sting.

January 20, 2016 - 12:00 pm |

RED BANK: BARTENDER/AUTHOR GOES FOR TWO

Dec 22, 2015

Red Bank bartender-turned-self-published novelist Brandon Zenner, seen here in 2014, is in the running for a contract with Kindle Scout, an Amazon program in which readers vote on which works get published. An excerpt of the Dublin House barkeep’s second novel, “Whiskey Devils,” may be previewed and voted upon here. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

December 22, 2015 - 3:00 pm |

LINCROFT: BIG WORDS ON CAMPUS

Dec 7, 2015

Award-winning poet Tim Seibles (above) and best selling author/graphic novelist Mat Johnson (below) wrap up this season’s Visiting Writers program at Brookdale tonight.

A poet and a graphic novelist walk into a room — and for tonight’s final entry in the fall 2015 series of Visiting Writers events on the Lincroft campus, Brookdale Community College sets up a double-header event that hits the holiday-break interlude on a high note.

Featured is Tim Seibles, whose five volumes of verse have won him accolades from his peers (and, in the case of Fast Animal, placed him squarely in the running for no less an honor than the National Book Award).

December 7, 2015 - 5:45 am |

SEA BRIGHT: ALL-WELCOME WEEKEND AT UMC

Dec 4, 2015

Sea Bright United Methodist is the place to be this weekend for the official dedication of the relocated Sea Bright Public Library on Saturday, plus a Christmas Cantata and free community dinner on Sunday.

Even as the people of Sea Bright got to work putting their beloved borough back together in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, the loss of the town’s permanent public library continued to leave a hole in the heart of community life.

While the library’s circa-1976 J.W. Ross Cultural Arts Center building — razed amid some controversy in early 2014, as reported here on redbankgreen — sustained relatively light damage in comparison to other hard-hit neighboring structures, the decision was made to temporarily relocate rather than restore. This past summer saw the “small, friendly” Sea Bright Library open its doors inside the host walls of United Methodist Church at 1104 Ocean Avenue — and this Saturday, the borough officially cuts the ribbon, in an all-welcome event that boasts a bonus helping of seasonal cheer.

December 4, 2015 - 2:00 pm |

RUMSON: ADULT BOOKS PROMPT R-FH DEBATE

Oct 14, 2015

With emergency lights on because of a power outage, parent Siobhan Fallon Hogan urged parental choice in the books read by teens. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

[UPDATE: See a statement from playwright Ariel Dorfman about this controversy appended to the bottom of this article.]

It was a dimly lit and slightly damp night as about 150 members of the Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School community politely debated a stormy issue Tuesday: the place of two works of fiction in the curriculum.

Taking turns at a non-working microphone in an auditorium lit by emergency lights because of a power outage, a number of parents challenged the inclusion of two books on reading lists for juniors and seniors because of their adult themes and coarse language.

Led by former Saturday Night Live cast member Siobhan Fallon Hogan, the objectors insisted they were not out to ban or censor the books, but instead to call for a policy that would allow parents to choose substitute reading material they consider “age appropriate” for their children.

October 14, 2015 - 8:00 am |

FAIR HAVEN: TWO NOVEL ATTRACTIONS

Oct 6, 2015

Glamour magazine book editor Elisabeth Egan (above) visits River Road Books on Thursday to read from and sign copies of her recently published A WINDOW OPENS…while fellow first-time novelist Barrie Levitt Knee arrives later this month to promote her debut book PLAIN JANE (below).

Two new novels; two stirring stories of contemporary women at a crossroads of life-choices. Both written by authors who are new to book-length fiction, and both the subject of special events at Fair Haven’s River Road Books here in October, a month when we shake the sand from those “beach reads” and find something a little more fireside-appropriate.

But don’t break out that Snuggie just yet, as one of the visiting authors might just inspire you to take it outdoors for one more cool-weather marathon.

October 6, 2015 - 5:53 am |

RED BANK: GO SET YOUR WATCHES

Jul 13, 2015

The 1962 film version of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ screens for free at the Count Basie Theatre Tuesday as River Road Books celebrates the July 14 publication of Harper Lee’s long-awaited followup, ‘Go Set a Watchman.’

It’s panning out to be the most eagerly anticipated event in the digitally driven, radically reconfigured 21st century publishing industry, one centering around a story that was pecked out on a manual typewriter nearly 60 years ago. The first book published by the reclusive novelist Harper Lee in more than half a century, Go Set a Watchman stands as a sequel to the author’s To Kill a Mockingbird, even though it was written – and subsequently filed away– prior to that 1960 classic of modern American lit.

On Tuesday, July 14, Fair Haven’s River Road Books marks the official publication date of Watchman with a special event at Red Bank’s Count Basie Theatre: a free screening of the 1962 film version of Mockingbird.

July 13, 2015 - 5:50 am |

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