Beaconites!

Originally from Seattle, Gracelyn Woods grew up housing insecure, food insecure and raised by a single mom. From these tough beginnings, she cultivated a fierce attitude of hard work and self-determi…

There are plenty of good reasons to hope for a more bikeable Beacon. To name a few:  1) Improved safety (for drivers and pedestrians as well as for cyclists)  2) Reduced traffic congestion 3) Greate…

Lena Rizkallah has carved out a niche giving financial advice to women in their 40s and 50s, often helping them navigate transitional moments in their lives. For these clients — who may be going thro…

Our interview with Sergei Krasikov is a must-listen if you’re into trails, open spaces, water sheds and being outside in any weather.  

Originally from Belarus, Sergei has made Beacon his home in eve…

Paulette Myers-Rich has partnered with dozens of artists and writers during an accomplished career in fine art printing. In this interview we talk about many of those collaborations - including a ser…

Kim Pennock is an educator and the poultry lead at the Stony Kill educational farm and 4H club. Stony Kill has chickens, cows, sheep, rabbits and bees, with a focus on heritage breeds. Each August, i…

Pat Halvey is well acquainted with death and grieving. He was 13 years old when his father first initiated him into the family funeral business, and he’s worked with the deceased and the bereft ever …

While living in Brooklyn in the early 1990s, Neil Caplan saw a drawing of Bannerman’s Castle on Pollepel Island - situated between Beacon and Cold Spring. Inspired, he set out to gain stewardship of …

Curtis Harvey’s creative work has played out on two parallel tracks. As a musician, he helped define a certain 1990s post-rock sound as guitarist and singer for Rex, and he has gone on to play with m…

Kristen Holt-Browning is a poet, editor and (now) novelist. Her debut work of fiction, Ordinary Devotion, juxtaposes the lives of two women separated by 700 years. Kristen grew up nearby in the hamle…

Sam Anderson is a master of the essay form whose work spans a huge range of human experience and culture. 

As a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine, Sam has interviewed and written about Wei…

Yvette Valdes Smith knows firsthand how spiraling housing costs have made Beacon unaffordable to many. Yvette and her husband rented in Beacon for years, but moved to Fishkill when they realized they…

Danny Goodman is the author of Amerikaland, a new novel that presents a twisted mirror-image of America and New York City. It centers on two characters, both professional athletes, ensnared by dark f…

In this joint interview, fire chief Tom Lucchesi and veteran firefighter Pat Kelliher talk about fires and firefighting in Beacon. 

Not so long ago, volunteer firefighting in Beacon was a generationa…

Taylor Jackson’s introduction to astrology and the tarot was casual and fun, but quickly grew into a more dedicated practice. In our interview, she talks about the evolution of Black Satin Venus and …

Lucy Sante is the author of “Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York,” “The Other Paris,” and many other works. Her latest book, “I Heard Her Call My Name,” is a memoir that examines her life thro…

Bob Bozic’s life story reads like pulp fiction. After a tough upbringing, Bob ran away at 14 and lived on the streets of Toronto. A gangster bookie took him under his wing and taught him to fight. Bo…

Shane Bly Killoran is the force behind a crazy assortment of film, theater and literary arts programming in Beacon — many under the banner of Hit House Creative. To list a few... She has curated movi…