Atlantic Currents: A Cook Goes to Cork

More than 75 years ago, my mother, Marie, a young 16-year-old, took to the stage at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium on East Merrimack Street to sing alongside dozens of her friends, and at one point in the ensuing years, famed crooner Danny Thomas.

A member of the parish of St. Peter's Church on Gorham Street, my mom joined local radio program the Cathedral Hour and became a member of the Christian Doctrine Choristers.  The group would perform in semi-annual shows from 1945 through the mid 1950s.

Post World War II, the Choristers performed a concert at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium to honor the 441 Lowell heroes of World War II, one of whom was my uncle, Gerald, who was killed in action in WWII.  Gerald was the older brother of my father, Jimmy, who Marie would marry a few years later, in 1951.

I've blogged about the Choristers previously, and pics from their performances as well as a list of names of others local members of the group can be found here:  Choristers

So why resurrect the tale of my mom's brief, albeit unforgettable-for-her 1940s singing career now, whilst our country battles back the most insidious virus that any of us have seen in our lifetimes?

Because the tale of Marie Cook and her fellow Choristers is one of nearly 100 poems, essays, or short stories in Atlantic Currents: Connecting Cork and Lowell, a collection spotlighting 65 writers from and around the Mill City.  And if folks are looking for an entertaining read to help pass social distancing time being spent in their homes, this fits the bill quite nicely.

To say I'm honored to be numbered among the ranks of the other accomplished authors in the tome would be a gross understatement.  I offer my thanks to Paul Marion and John Wooding, who reached out to me to make a submission and stand alongside fellow writers doing our best to chronicle a piece of the Mill City's history and legacy.

I'm honored also, that a tale chronicling my mom's youth was the piece that was selected, helping keep alive a chunk of Lowell history all but forgotten with the dissolution of St. Peter's parish, and the passing of the generation who helped shape Lowell through the majority of the 20th century.

A little more insight into the collection, comes via the back cover copy of Atlantic Currents: "Connecting Cork and Lowell brings together sixty-five writers from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean whose stories, poems, essays, songs and parts of novels come to us in familiar voices.  While we recognize the sound and sense in these works because of the well-traveled routes between Ireland and America, there is much to discover in today's writing from both places.  Complex relationships, sublime joy found in small and large matters, destabilizing external forces, a hunger for harmony, loss in its many forms, snares of history, transcendent moments in special locations, the simple attempt to get through "it all" every day - readers will find all this and more."

The copy continues: "Spurred by a desire to make a sturdy bond between two historic cities whose modern resurgence has been driven in large part by commitments to lifelong experiential learning, the organizers of Cork Learning City and Lowell: City of Learning began collaborating in the spirit of UNESCO's Learning Cities network.  With this anthology, the connecting thread is made stronger through the now entwined writing and reading in both places."

The local book launch was scheduled for this weekend, but alas, was another casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic.  No doubt, it'll be back on the schedule as soon as the crisis abates, and I'm certain many of the talented writers featured in the book will be only too happy to celebrate the end of isolation and the value of having so many talented local writers.

For details on how to purchase your own copy, check out Loom Press' website here:  Loom Press

It's the perfect book to help pass the time of this seemingly-interminable quarantine, but it's also a magnificent opportunity to support and celebrate local authors and celebrate the lifelines between Lowell and Cork.

Slainte!