The crime that stunned the nation
On August 19, 1997, in little Colebrook, New Hampshire, a 62-year-old carpenter named Carl Drega, a man with long-simmering property rights grievances, murdered state troopers Scott Phillips and Les Lord at a traffic stop in a supermarket parking lot. Then Drega stole Phillips’s cruiser and drove downtown to settle some old scores. By the end of the day three more were dead, Drega among them, and four wounded.
Occurring on the eve of America’s current plague of gun violence, this tragic event made headlines all over the world and shocked New Hampshire out of a previous innocence. Touching on facets of North Country history, local governance, law enforcement, gun violence, and the human spirit, Richard Adams Carey describes a community that was never a passive victim but rather a brave and resilient survivor.
In the Evil Day: A Small Town in New Hampshire and the Crime That Stunned the Nation will be hosted by Pembroke Town Library on Wednesday, Dec. 7 at 5:30 p.m. Visit nhhumanities.org for more information.
Poet presents at Gibson’s
The Poetry Society of New Hampshire joins Gibson’s Bookstore to present poet Gabrielle Calvocoressi on Thursday, Dec. 1 at 5 p.m.
Gabrielle Calvocoressi is the author of The Last Time I Saw Amelia Earhart, Apocalyptic Swing (a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize), and Rocket Fantastic, winner of the Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry. Calvocoressi is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships including a Stegner Fellowship and Jones Lectureship from Stanford University; a Rona Jaffe Woman Writer’s Award; a Lannan Foundation residency in Marfa, TX; the Bernard F. Conners Prize from The Paris Review; and a residency from the Civitella di Ranieri Foundation, among others. Calvocoressi’s poems have been published or are forthcoming in numerous magazines and journals including The Baffler, The New York Times, POETRY, Boston Review, Kenyon Review, Tin House, and The New Yorker.
Calvocoressi is an Editor at Large at Los Angeles Review of Books, and Poetry Editor at Southern Cultures. Works in progress include a non-fiction book entitled, The Year I Didn’t Kill Myself and a novel, The Alderman of the Graveyard. Calvocoressi teaches at UNC Chapel Hill and lives in Old East Durham, NC, where joy, compassion, and social justice are at the center of their personal and poetic practice. Calvocoressi is the Beatrice Shepherd Blane Fellow at the Harvard-Radcliffe Institute for 2022-23.
Cookies, cocoa and stories
Head to the Concord Community Center on Saturday, Dec. 3 at 10:30 a.m. for cookies, cocoa and stories with the gingerbread man. Hosted by The Friends Program, enjoy gingerbread cookie decorating, stories, crafts and holiday fun. We will be telling the traditional Gingerbread Man folktale, as well as some crazy and silly gingerbread man-inspired stories to get everyone in the holiday mood. For more information, see eventbrite.com/e/cookies-and-cocoa-stories-with-the-gingerbread-man-tickets-465325740817?aff=ebdssbcitybrowse.
NH on skis
Take Scandinavian and Austrian immigrants, the Dartmouth Outing Club, the Cannon Mountain Tramway, the muscular Christian, amateur tinkerers, and Professor E. John B. Allen. Cover it with snow and shake, and you have all the makings of a unique NH history. Join presenter E. John Allen on Monday, Dec. 5 at 7 p.m. for New Hampshire on Skiis. Hosted by Newbury Public Library at Newbury Veterans Hall. Visit nhhumanities.org for more.
Storytime with Esenwine
The Concord Family Center is pleased to present a storytime with New Hampshire author Matt Forrest Esenwine. Join us on the carpet at 10 a.m. for stories and books on Wednesday, Dec. 7.
Matt Forrest Esenwine lives in New Hampshire with his wife, kids, and more pets than he has fingers, so don’t ask him to count. The Concord Family Center is a free program for Concord families with children birth to age six. This mission includes Play-based learning for parents/caregivers and their young children.
Safe communities
Quarterly meeting of the Greater Concord Safe Communities Coalition will be on Wednesday, Dec. 7 from noon to 1:30 p.m. at the National Safety Council of Northern New England.
Join us to meet the new Trauma Manager from the Concord Hospital, Hilary Hawkins, RN, BSN, MBA, CEN, CPEN, TNCC.
Hilary will be the keynote speaker and will be presenting some of the latest data from the Trauma Center.
Email David Henderson at davidh@nscnne.org to register or request more information. There is no cost to attend and lunch will be provided. For more information, visit nscnne.org.
