Travelogue (7)—Latvian Song and Dance Festival

In 2013, I visited Riga for the Latvian Song and Dance Festival and became a big fan of this event. Every five years, Latvians all over the world come together for a weeklong celebration of their beloved folksongs and dances. The festival also embodies a spirit of solidarity among a people who survived a tumultuous and tragic history of foreign occupation.

 

My late father and his sister were Latvian WWII refugees who emigrated to California and Ontario, respectively. I never learned the Latvian language and am left to wonder what it would have been like to attend the festival with them, to benefit from their insights and translation. The Canadian version of the Latvian Song and Dance Festival is closer to home, so I made plans to attend.

My husband and I started our road trip to Toronto on July 4, making stops in Western New York on the way up and back. We had great accommodations, dining experiences, and sightseeing adventures. First stop, Keuka Lake. We stayed the night in this Airbnb cottage, clean and comfortable with beautiful surroundings. Our host was friendly and helpful.

 

Highlights: walks along the wooded lake’s edge, a visit to historic and beautiful Garrett Memorial Chapel, the best ice cream in New York at Seneca Farms in Penn Yan, and a perfect view of Independence Day fireworks all around the lake’s edge.

Garrett Memorial Chapel

 

Midday on the 5th, we left Keuka Lake and stopped in Naples, NY, for lunch at the Old School Café. Had a delicious meal, sitting outside under the trees with good shade from the hot day.

Then we hopped in the car for Toronto. Not much delay at the U.S./Canada border (Peace Bridge). On the Canada side, we zipped along for a while before the traffic on the QEW got horrendous. The last 50 miles to Toronto took forever. Friday rush hour? Or is it always like that? We got to our hotel at about 7 p.m. Hotel X.

A good choice. We explored two rooftop lounges with great views of the city and had a scrumptious dinner at the hotel restaurant, Roses Social. Our large, comfortable room presented only one challenge—how to work those strangely unique light switches? Took us a while to figure them out. The best feature was the high-impact water pressure in the shower.

Saturday, July 6, was a busy day. In the morning, I took Johanna Bergfelt’s contemporary dance class at the National Ballet of Canada. I’d “known” Johanna virtually for nearly four years, taking her online classes at home, so it was a delight to meet her in person and to dance her wonderful choreography in a huge studio.

Next, hubby and I had brunch at Fox on John. We bypassed the outdoor seating only because a flash rainstorm hit. Inside, we had mimosas, omelets, and fixings while watching a Euro 2024 soccer match between England and Switzerland. A lot of energy in the room!

Then, on to the Latvian Mass Choir Concert at Roy Thomson Hall.  The President of Latvia, Edgars Rinkēvičs, gave opening remarks. The stage was filled to capacity with singers, overflowing into the upper audience boxes on either side (this photo doesn’t quite capture all the singers on the sides). About 700 or 800, everyone in national costume. They performed dozens of folksongs in beautiful harmony, each with its own conductor.

 

My videos of the songs didn’t turn out so great, so here are links to a few good ones posted on YouTube by other attendees:  Lec Saulīte (Sun Rises) and Saule Pērkons Daugava (Sun, Thunder, Daugava [River]).

The concert ended with Pūt Vējiņi (Blow Winds), the song that closes every festival, with the audience singing and swaying along. Here is a video of Pūt Vējiņi at the 2023 Riga concert (40,000 singers in a huge amphitheater!)

Sunday morning the 7th we took the ferry to Toronto Islands, getting this view of the city skyline on the way there. A low flying airplane went directly overhead, coming in for a landing at the nearby Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport.

 

The several small islands are connected, making a large park with plenty of trees and white sand beaches on Lake Ontario. We started out on the westernmost island and walked for about an hour to the center island, where we caught the ferry back.

About halfway through our walk, a loud din caught our attention across an inlet to a small interior island. Hundreds of birds were circling or perched on denuded trees, squawking like crazy. Think Hitchcock’s The Birds. A man who had docked his boat nearby told us that the cormorant population is out-of-control, damaging the trees and environment. We were lucky the wind was blowing away from us, he said, because the noxious odor of their guano is overpowering.

Back in town, we found a great place for lunch a few blocks from the venue where the next festival event was to be held. We had delicious burgers and cold beer sitting in this outdoor patio at Pogue Mahone Pub & Kitchen.

Then it was on to the Latvian Folk Dance Spectacle at the Mattamy Athletic Centre, home of the Maple Leafs ice hockey team! No ice that day. 800 dancers of all ages filled the entire arena with joy and spirit, making intricate patterns with their dances. I made a short video from a few clips of different dances you can see here (Instagram).

Here’s a fuller recap on YouTube. At :45 seconds in, you will see a song near the end of the concert called Daugav’ Abas Malas (Both Sides of the Daugava River), where we all crossed our arms and held hands and sang along. (I’m in that audience somewhere!) Some of the lyrics translate as: “One language, one soul, one land that is ours.” And here is a video of the dance finale.

My favorite dance was by a group that won first place in the new choreography contest. I got most of it on my iPhone and posted it here, on YouTube. Really beautiful and fun!

The performance ended at about 6:30 p.m. and we headed back to New York. Again, the traffic was bad. The Google maps lady sent us to the Lewiston crossing, claimed to be “the best possible route.” We waited in line almost an hour before a customs agent waved us through. On the U.S. side, the highway is a lot prettier than the highway we took going north, through Buffalo.

We didn’t get to our hotel until about 11 p.m., a really nice place, the Chautauqua Harbor Hotel in Jamestown. It was built five years ago, everything spiffy clean and comfy.

In the morning, we visited with friends who took us on a tour of the Chautauqua Institution, a 750-acre community on Chautauqua Lake that hosts summer residence programs in music, dance, theater, and fine arts, among others, and holds events open to the public year round. You may recall that this is where author Salman Rushdie was attacked in 2022. After that, security was tightened and we needed a grounds access pass. There are many beautiful privately owned homes that can be rented, a historic hotel, studios, theaters, and so much more.

Of most interest to me would be to take the dance classes taught by visiting teachers, or to watch performances by notable dance companies. Alas, that will have to be another visit! We were tuckered out from all the excitement and long drive, so made our way back home.

Thanks for riding along! In other news, pick up my award-winning collection Your Pick: Selected Stories during my summer sale. A mere 99 cents in e-book for another week!

 

Proclamation Day of the Republic of Latvia

Latvian Flag

Today, November 18, 2018, Latvia celebrates the 100-year anniversary of its proclamation of independence. This does not mean that Latvia has enjoyed 100 years of freedom. Far from it. The story of Latvia is riddled with long periods of German and Soviet occupation. Freedom from Soviet rule was restored in 1991.

On Proclamation Day, and as we look forward this week to Thanksgiving, I am grateful for the freedom we have in the United States and am reminded that it should never be taken for granted. My late father, as a teenager, was a displaced person during World War II, when Nazi and Soviet troops clashed, literally in his backyard. My father, his sister, and their parents joined the thousands of Latvians who fled. I can hardly imagine the trauma of being ripped from your country, your home, and everything you know, to be a refugee, to make your way in another country, not able to go back. My experience of these events has been secondhand, through the stories of my late father and late aunt. I wish I had asked them more when they were still on this earth!

As I so frequently experience, my imagination takes hold of bits of fact, and expands and embellishes them until they explode into story. My story collection Your Pick, comprised of reader favorites from previous collections, opens with a reprint of “My Latvian Aunt,” a story that won an award and has garnered much interest over the years. I think this story is compelling because my late aunt’s voice can be heard in its pages. I incorporated bits of our conversations and wove historical facts about Latvia and WWII into the story. I did some of the same in a murder mystery with a Latvian protagonist that takes place during the Cold War. “Dzintra’s Tale” has been accepted for publication by Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, and I’ll be sure to let you know when it appears in print!

Your Pick: Selected Stories, launches on November 23. Click here if you’d like to enter a giveaway on Goodreads for a free copy of Your Pick in e-book!

So Long Summer — And Exciting Short Story News!

Is today really the first day of autumn?

I’m already missing summer and the many beautiful days I enjoyed by the ocean, Jones Beach NY and Point Pleasant NJ. Sun, water, and sand!

Bye-bye seagulls!

My summer wasn’t all play. Plenty happening with my writing, and I’ve got some great short story news to share.

Cover reveal! Isn’t this a beautiful cover?

Coming November 23! Your Pick, a collection of reader favorites, carefully selected from my four previous collections. For readers who are new to my short stories, this is the place to start. The greatest hits, if you will. I’ve assembled a dozen of my best stories based on the comments I’ve received from readers over the years. Your Pick includes stories at the emotional heart of my work, those that readers have mentioned, time and again, as their favorites. Your Pick is now available for preorder in e-book, and will also be available in paperback on publication date.

More short story news: I’ve sold another story to Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine! “Dzintra’s Tale” is a murder mystery incorporating historical fact about the mass emigration of Latvians escaping the Soviet invasion during World War II. As you may know, much of my knowledge about Latvia comes from my late father and aunt, who were displaced persons after the war. Publication date for “Dzintra’s Tale” is yet to be determined, so stay tuned. Another new story of mine has been accepted for inclusion in an anthology with other fantastic mystery and crime writers—more news on that to come as well!

For the short story writers and novelists reading this, you might be interested in a series of three articles I wrote this summer, with tips on “Adding Criminal Law and Procedure to Your Fiction.” The series was posted in August on the blog for the Mystery Writers of America, New York chapter: Part I, “Search and Seizure”; Part II, “Stop & Frisk, Arrest, Identification Procedures, Indictment,” and Part III, “The Courtroom—Guilty Plea and Trial.”

That’s all the news fit to print for now. Wishing you a lovely, crisp, productive autumn!

Ordinary Life: Book Review

Dust of the Universe by V.S. KemanisOne of my readers gave me Ordinary Life: Stories, by Elizabeth Berg, and mentioned that the themes in the book reminded her of my collection Dust of the Universe, tales of family. I’m so thankful for this gift.

Each story in this collection reflects exactly what the title says, ordinary life. So simple, yet so deep, these stories touch on the exquisite moments we all experience and can relate to. Elizabeth Berg reawakens us to the small things that make us human, make life worth living. She reminds us to be grateful for the routine and commonplace events that give us comfort, delight, and yes, magic.

The opening and closing stories in this collection are perfect bookends Ordinary Life: Storiesto the theme. In the opening piece, “Ordinary Life: A Love Story,” a woman of 79 takes a week-long timeout from her husband to reflect on her life. The memories and images of people, possessions, and family milestones tumble out in a free flow of association. At this stage of her life, she wonders where the time went and what’s next. “How could she have known that ordinary life would have such allure later on?”

The closing story, “Today’s Special,” is about how good it feels to eat in a diner. Is there anything more mundane? It’s an extraordinary piece of writing! The author tells us in the afterword that this is one of her earliest stories, a reflection on what she might tell a friend who is suffering from depression. It’s a wonderful description of the comfort food and the people in the diner, along with a list of other everyday images, ending with this: “Isn’t it those small things that add the necessary shape and meaning to our lives? And don’t we miss seeing them if we look too hard for big things?”

Many of the relationships in these stories have suffered a gradual erosion from the tedium of everyday life. This is something we all struggle with. Underlying the weight of years is the yearning for something BIG, the revelation of a grand plan. Habits and patterns of behavior become ingrained and hurtful to others. “We all return to what’s familiar to us… Even if it’s not so wonderful, it’s what we know,” a man tells his wife, who struggles with the anger she feels toward her emotionally distant, verbally abusive father. (I love the name of that story: “One Time at Christmas, in my Sister’s Bathroom”!)

The story that really hit me was “Take this Quiz.” It concludes with a metaphor that’s a bit too obvious, but its placement at the end and the truth it reveals runs deep. The implicit message is clear and applies to every relationship, whether casual or intimate: Once the words are out of your mouth, it’s too late to take them back.

Each story is a compact little gem with a lesson to learn or a nugget for inner reflection. The stories move toward something. In their struggles with interpersonal relationships, Berg’s characters always make a transition toward self-knowledge, acceptance, or revelation.

Dear Short Story Lovers: I highly recommend Ordinary Life.

And V.S. Kemanis at KGB Barspeaking of short stories, here I am at the iconic KGB Bar in Manhattan last month, reading my short story “Times Square Tail” from Malocclusion, tales of misdemeanor. What a fun night!

Malocclusion, tales of misdemeanor

 

 

 

 

 

Stay tuned for more great news about my short stories: cover reveal for a collection of selected stories, and new stories accepted for magazine and anthology publications!

 

Farewell 2017! A page from my personal journal

Farewell 2017! From the personal journal, it’s a fond farewell. On December 30, 2017, my beloved husband Kevin and I celebrate our 29th wedding anniversary. This year has been as rich and loving as always, and I’m thankful for the many warm and wonderful times together and with our daughters, other family members, and close friends.

In my legal mystery novels, protagonist Dana Hargrove juggles the demands of a high-powered professional career with her personal and family life. She has a loving husband, Evan, to support her. Evan and Dana are nothing like Kevin and I except for one thing: We are a team, giving each other space to pursue our personal interests. For this I am very grateful. I would not be able to accomplish my artistic goals without Kevin.

These are my professional and artistic highlights for 2017:

Publishing my fourth story collection, Love and Crime: Stories, to starred reviews by Foreword  and BlueInk.

 

Interviews with exceptional authors Eowyn Ivey  and William Burton McCormick on VBlog.

 

Getting on stage again after a break of many years, performing the stellar choreography of Katiti King and making many new dance friends along the way.

 

Many hours of joyful dance with my favorite teachers at Gibney Dance and Steps NYC, including Diane McCarthy, Laurie DeVito, Katiti King, Max Stone, Teresa Perez Ceccon, and Bethany Perry.

 

 

An amazing master class with Lynn Simonson, the creator of the Simonson Technique.

 

A wonderful sendoff by my coworkers and friends at the Appellate Division upon my retirement from my fulltime legal career.

 

Thank you to editor Janet Hutchings of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine for posting my humorous account of my (now former!) commuter life, Rock ‘n Rail, on Something Is Going to Happen.

 

 

A lot of fun working on a video of my work with talented filmmaker Blake Horn. Stay tuned! The video will be posted soon to Amazon and Goodreads.

Putting the finishing touches on my fourth Dana Hargrove novel, Deep Zero, to be released on January 25, 2018!

 

I wish you a happy, healthy, artistic 2018!

Love from V.