Photo by Violet Snow

With help, Woodstock man transitions to life outside prison

“I haven’t experienced freedom in so long, my biggest fear is to have that taken away,” said Woodstocker Ryland Koller, who has been partially released from prison after doing eight years for robbing a heroin dealer in 2011. “I wake up in a cold sweat, thinking some technicality will come up, and I’ll have to go back in. Sleep has been elusive.” Continue reading>

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Photo by Violet Snow

​Four Geezers stay young with Woodstock projects

The Geezer Corps’ motto is “Doing good things for Woodstock until we keel over.” The four town residents meet every morning at Bread Alone to discuss the community service projects that are keeping them busy in their retirement. Their only rule is to have fun. How much fun? I’ll try to convey it through dialogue, although the one-liners zinged by so fast, I couldn’t get everything down.
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Unlearning violence

Years ago, when Hilary Sanders-McKenna was considering working at Family of Woodstock’s domestic violence shelter, she watched a training video that made her wonder, “How are these women going to stop being beaten if men don’t get help?" In 1984, she became one of the first facilitators of Family’s EVOLVE program, which conducts weekly sessions to help participants discuss and examine their feelings and behaviors, in order to reduce the incidence of domestic violence.
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Photo by Dion Ogust

Michael Esposito’s quietly eventful Woodstock life

Quoting one of his Swami Salami cartoons, which have been appearing in the Woodstock Times since 1985, Michael Esposito said, “‘I came, I shopped, I left.’ That’s my motto. It simplifies the whole idea of coming to this physical manifestation....”
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While performing his particular style of “shopping,” Michael’s occupations have included musician, painter, builder, priest, and bicycle repairman, as well as cartoonist. In the 1960s, he played in a rock band, the Blues Magoos....  Continue reading >