Rio Contrada’s new film, “Put Your Feet Up,” will screen at the 2019 Independent Film Festival of Boston, which takes place April 24-May 1. Contrada, the film’s producer, has worked with director Peter Horgan and cinematographer Zach MacDonald to craft a story about a unique romance between a man with a fetish for acting as a footrest and an asexual writer.
Horgan and MacDonald both worked with Contrada on the latter’s previous film, “Time to Go,” which was based on the life of Contrada’s late father, Fred, a longtime Springfield Republican newspaper reporter who died last November.
According to publicity notes, the creators of “Put Your Feet Up” have been talking with with local sex positive groups to spread awareness about the topic. The film screens on Saturday, April 27 at the Somerville Theatre and on April 28 and 29.
The Department of Music and Dance at the University of Massachusetts Amherst will present two of its final concerts of the semester, featuring students from the UMass String studios and the UMass Symphony Orchestra, toward the end of April.
Students with the UMass String studios perform movements from two Mendelssohn string quartets, Brahms’ “String Quartet in A minor,” and works by Debussy and Mozart on Monday, April 22 at 7:30 p.m. in Bezanson Recital Hall. That concert is free and open to the public.
On Monday, April 29 at 7:30 p.m. at the Fine Arts Center Concert Hall, the Symphony Orchestra will feature Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade” as well as performances by students Michael Brown, Chris Leslie and Kristen Skovan, all of whom are winners from the Concerto/Aria Competition. Free admission for UMass students, $10 for general admission and $5 for seniors, UMass employees and other students.
“Girldom,” a 2018 poetry collection published by Perugia Press of Florence, has won the John A. Robertson Award for Best First Book of Poetry from the Texas Institute of Letters. The collection, by Texas poet Megan Peak, had previously been selected by Perugia, which publishes one volume of poetry per year by an up-and-coming woman poet, from hundreds of applications.
“Girldom” is Peak’s debut collection, one in which she chronicles her coming of age, her discovery of sexuality and sexual violence, and its connection to the natural world and womanhood. One reviewer called it “a breathtaking and necessary book that confronts childhood mythology, sexual consciousness and violence, and the nature of love…. a powerful debut by a poet who has the sensual, grieving world in her mouth.”
In a press release, Perugia officials said they were thrilled by the news of Peak’s award. “Texas is huge; the competition was steep. We are so pleased to add Girldom to our long list of post-publication wins.”