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Arts

Lunar New Year in Malden marked with joy and Chinese cultural flair

By Jinghe Zhong, special to Neighborhood View MALDEN, MA — The Chinese Culture Connection (CCC) held its 14th annual Lunar New Year Celebration at Malden High School on January 14, 2022. For the Asian community in Malden, this was a momentous occasion. The event was finally presented in person after three years, bringing together hundreds of local residents and businesses of diverse cultural backgrounds. Group photo featuring some of the performers of the day, along with Malden mayor Gary Christenson, U.S.Postal Services Manager of Malden branch Jeffrey Carter, Executive Director of the Chinese Culture Connection Mei Hung, and Malden Reads’ Linda Zalk. Photo by Fen Zhang A spectacular lion dance performance by Wah Lum Kung Fu & Tai Chi Academy set the festive mood, and Mei Hung, Executive Director of the CCC, was joined by Malden mayor Gary Christenson to officially open the event. Malden mayor Gary Christenson extends warm greetings. Photo by Fen Zhang Mei Hung, Executive Director of the Chinese Culture Connection, delivers the opening remarks. Photo by Fen Zhang An audience member [...]
Education

Drinking coffee with the Song Dogs of Forest Dale

By Karen Buck Joey Kolbe, a professional wildlife photographer, leaned against a rock and sipped his coffee. His 22-pound camouflaged zoom lens was focused on his local and personal project: the lives of two coyote siblings living in the Forest Dale region of Malden, MA. Ten years ago, Kolbe and his family moved to Malden. He was intrigued with the coyotes after his first local sighting in 2013. His coyote project started in 2016 by filming a family of four, but by 2022 he was putting a more in-depth focus on the two siblings living in the Forest Dale neighborhood. Kolbe has observed these local Song Dogs for thousands of hours. Coyote siblings at Forest Dale cemetery in Malden. (Photo by Joey Kolbe) The Wildlife Photographer Lens Kolbe’s passion was sparked from an experience with his eight-year-old daughter two years ago. They had been exploring the Fells and were sitting by one of the water stations. Several coyotes appeared and were curious about the father and daughter. The coyotes smelled the air; Kolbe described, “The bubble [...]
Contribute

How to help (close to home) this holiday season

Are you looking for meaningful ways to give back this holiday season? Donating and volunteering locally has many benefits even beyond the most important of meeting local community needs. Donating to a local food or toy drive or doing hands-on volunteering provides an opportunity to connect more deeply with one’s community and meet others who are spending their time giving back. Volunteering can also offer a different or broader perspective on one’s own life. The need for donations and volunteering is year-round, but giving back at this time could also help jump start a cycle of giving and volunteering during all seasons. Many sources support this notion around volunteering. The EF (Education First) blog states, “By immersing yourself in a community and surrounding yourself with people who are dedicated to bettering the world, you can learn so much about how the world works. You gain a unique sense of purpose by serving those around you, one which often manifests in other areas of your life.” Malden is a community rich in nonprofits, service organizations and [...]
Education

Community outreach project tackles heat resistance

By Shannon A. Garrido Berges Extreme heat waves and dry summers are expected to become the norm in Massachusetts. Such extreme weather may pose significant health and safety concerns in cities like Boston, Everett and Malden. “Extreme heat is the silent killer, [because] it is the number one extreme weather killer out of hurricanes, tornadoes, or flooding,” said Marissa Zampino, a community organizer for the Mystic River Watershed Association (MyRWA), who concentrates on extreme heat safety. “We simply do not have the cultural or social know-how nor do we have the infrastructure needed to deal with heat waves.” Marissa Zampino, Mystic River Watershed Association Community Organizer Zampino has partnered with Museum of Science, Boston, MyRWA, the Resilient Mystic Collaborative (RMC) and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) to develop the Wicked Hot Mystic project, This is a research project that developed detailed heat maps during the hottest days of this past summer to identify the neighborhoods most in need of heat safety interventions. The results are being used to help focus efforts to close heat [...]
Featured

Diversity, Service & Solutions: Ramon Norales reflects on his life in Malden

By Joy Pearson In May 2020, Malden Reads planned to host the Malden Mass. Memories Road Show (MMRS), a statewide, event-based, participatory digital archiving program that documents people, places, and events in Massachusetts history through family photographs and stories. Due to the pandemic, the in-person event could not be held. So Neighborhood View, in collaboration with Malden Reads, is contributing photographs and stories online as part of the Malden Mass. Memories Stuck-at-Home Show. The following story continues the series of participant profiles, which focus on photographs and what they mean to that resident of Malden. It was the cultural and ethnic diversity of Malden that attracted Ramon Norales to move here in 1997. During the past 25 years, Ramon has devoted his life to family, to work, and to his Malden community through his ethics of service and solutions. In 1971, 7 ½-year-old Ramon Norales immigrated to New York City from Spanish-speaking Honduras in Central America to be with his parents. In New York City, he grew up in Harlem Later, he attended NYC Technical College in [...]
Events

Fenway Park to Host Malden vs Medford Annual Thanksgiving Football Game

Photo by the Boston Herald. […]
Education

Indigenous wisdom, poetry and history guide community event at Malden River

By Anne D’Urso-Rose I know that our ancestors are really happy for the work that we’re doing. It’s been a 400-year fracture – with colonization and assimilation – and it’s really going to take all of us to come together, in ways like this, to bring balance back to the land and to the water. Andre StrongBearHeart Gaines, Jr. – Malden, MA, 9-24-22 As the country recognizes indigenous Peoples Month this November, Neighborhood View reflects on a recent community event that embodied the spirit of remembering, understanding and connecting with Native people, history and culture. Malden Mayor Gary Christenson (right) reads a citation to Andre StrongBearHeart Gaines, Jr., a citizen of the Nipmuc people and cultural steward for his Tribe, while his nephews (Tall Hair Red Deer and Wandering Turtle) look on. “Words on the Water” (morning) and “Project Misik” (afternoon) was a combined day-long event on Sept. 24 in a spot along the banks of the Malden River that is generally hidden from public view. In that space, more than 200 residents, a sampling [...]
Featured

Advocate Founder James Mitchell: “A newspaper is something that belongs to the city”

By Shannon A. Garrido Berges Old black and white photographs of bikers soaring over cars and a dramatic shot of the Hindenburg surround me. I sit in an office filed with stacks of newspapers that read “Advocate’” in bold red letters. The man behind the headlines, James David Mitchell, sits before me. Mitchell, founder of The Advocate, discusses his journey in approaching the world of local journalism. He details the challenges The Advocate has and continues to face and what that means for the future of local journalism. His father, James Mitchell Sr.—who sits at the desk parallel from us— started the Chelsea Advocate when Mitchell was a child and worked on many other publications as well. His father’s occupation became a source of interest for Mitchell from a young age and heavily influenced him to pursue journalism. “When I was a kid, my father used to take me [and my three siblings] to his newspaper office, but I was kind of the only one who was always reading all the time,” said Mitchell. After [...]