The first time I stepped foot in Chestertown, it was from a Greyhound bus pausing just long enough for its air brakes to exhale. I was suddenly nowhere with a steamer trunk looking for a campus I had never seen and a growing sense that this stop would be temporary. I asked a mechanic at the garage how to call a cab. He laughed, and I said goodbye to the 20th Century.
Little did I know that trek up Washington Avenue would slide into four grateful years at the College at a time, not unlike today when the world seemed fevered, chaotic and dangerous, bloody with assassinations, war, and the sweeping fires of the Civil Rights movement. Aside from protest marches in DC, College offered an insulated, suspended life.
But it was the summers between school years that I discovered the real town and its inspiration as a “community”—not the miniature Williamsburg in a snow-globe Chestertown, but the people who long before I arrived made this village on a river their home. I saw a burgeoning arts movement, the beginning of community theatre, the first Tea Party launches. It was small enough then as it is now to be acquainted with almost everyone and continues to have that intimacy.
But sometimes you have to leave something to appreciate it fully, and I did just that for a 20-year sojourn on the West Coast. And yes, the ocean there is still on the wrong side of the landscape.
I returned after 9/11, that transformative year that pierced our hearts and reframed our lives, and I found that, of course, it had changed and grown. New faces and new shops, the building of the Sultana, the Prince Theatre transition to the Garfield, but it continued to elicit the feeling of “place” for me. If dared to use a music metaphor (who would ever do that?), and life was a piano, I’d call it my Middle C. You know the feeling.
The last seven years I’ve had the pleasure of working with the Spy as an writer and editor and taking part in the evolution of a unique media platform where we strive to share, reflect, and promote the community and region’s news and culture.
I can’t imagine a more challenging time to return as its editor. A tsunami of challenges face us: a global pandemic threatens every aspect of our lives, a national and local reckoning with systemic racism, a contentious election on the horizon. Chestertown is not immune to these currents.
But here’s the thing. In my experience, Chestertown always “shows up.” During a pandemic, we find creative ways to move the arts forward to online gatherings. When schools close, surprising alliances form to help feed children and the elderly. Confronted with the racism of our past and present, we engage to be educated and informed. For each of these issues, leaders and committees have stepped forward to guide us toward solutions, and I’m always stunned by the talents of so many community members who lend a hand in every effort to continue making this our home—for all of us, every one.
One thing Chestertown is not: passive. Its voices can be raucous and refined, argumentative, and vastly caring, and I’ve always seen a willingness to budge the hardest issues forward. It’s good to be back. I can’t think of a better way to participate than to help share our news, arts, and stories.
The laughter at my wanting to summon a cab that first day conveyed, “you have no idea where you are or what you’re doing.”
I do now.
In other news, the Chestertown Spy has started a new series in the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter mural debate. Entitled “What’s Next,” I plan to interview a number of stakeholders on where this powerful movement is going to end systemic racism in Kent County.
We also have expanded our partnership with the Delmarva Review, the Eastern Shore’s flagship literary magazine. Each Saturday we will be sharing the best of poetry, fiction, and occasionally non-fiction from some of their best writers.
And speaking of Saturdays, the Chestertown Spy will have a new, and long overdue, feature celebrating local photography. We are calling this The Spy Lens. Each Saturday, Spy columnist and photography devotee, Jamie Kirkpatrick will present an image of the week chosen from readers’ submissions. That means you have to send Jamie your best digital work to [email protected]. Our preference is to showcase Kent County, the Eastern Shore, or the Chesapeake Bay but we are not averse to looking beyond these regions. Thematically, the images may be in any style or genre: architecture, landscape, nature, or portraiture. Images may be in color or black and white. We are looking for fresh, intriguing, or intimate images that feature unique composition and lighting. We prefer material in landscape format, but vertical is also acceptable. Please include a line or two of narrative with each image you choose to submit: where you were, your thoughts about the image, a good title (rather than Image #12). You may submit up to three images per month. Image sizes should be between 1mg and 4mg.
Also, I’d like to thank everyone who has contributed to the Spy these last few weeks to help us through another season. We can’t do it without you. Our summer campaign ends tonight at midnight so here’s one last chance to help us keep spying. Please use this link here to make a donation.
James Dissette
Editor
Chestertown Spy
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