By Kayla Schmidt The Hudson River runs more than 300 miles, and Luis Melendez knows a good chunk of it by heart. As a boat captain for 16 years, the last two as the boat captain for the Riverkeeper, he patrols the river’s estuary from the Gowanus Canal in the city up to the Federal Lock in Troy, learning new ...

By Kayla Schmidt There’s an old saying that if you love your job, you don’t work a day in your life. For Rebecca Bose, curator at the Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, that rings true. For over 26 years, she has opted for wolves instead of vet school, built a career around animals she deeply respects, and found a ...

By Gia Miller & Justin Negard Photography by Justin Negard When commercial real estate and fashion executive Steve Giner moved into a “fixer-upper stone carriage house” in Katonah almost 20 years ago, someone mentioned his interesting neighbor, but he didn’t give it much thought. One summer day, during the middle of his home renovation, Giner was outside observing his foundation ...

By Gia Miller Photography by Justin Negard "I find a sense of calm and peace from being in nature,” explains Waccabuc resident Sally Frank. As an artist who has dedicated over half a century to printmaking, for Frank, the natural world is not only her refuge, it’s her source of inspiration, her visual muse. And nature is also fundamental to ...

By Gia Miller Heavy Metal Therapy “Listen,” says Metallica’s frontman James Hetfield to northern Westchester resident and acclaimed documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger. “The film is very painful to watch. I’m not sure I am ever going to watch it again.” It’s late September 2003; Berlinger and his co-director/co-producer, Bruce Sinofsky, have spent the past three years filming the renowned heavy ...

By Anastasia Mills Healy Photography by Justin Negard "I think my spirit animal would be a bird,” Megan Cedro tells me as we sit in her Bedford studio surrounded by her art—mostly paintings of women and animals. “I’ve got a birdlike tendency to me. And I’ve still, to this day, not figured out if I’m more canine or feline, which ...

By Eli Zev Photography by Justin Negard Meet Xander Bajaj, a four-year-old Katonah resident who attends Katonah Playcare Early Learning Center. He loves to play with his friends and build things with his mom. And we’re a bit jealous of his birthday breakfast. Do you have a best friend? Three. Three best friends? Wow! What are their names? Luke, Xander ...

By Ilyssa Panitz Photography courtesy of New York Sports Photo Group According to the Michael J. Fox Foundation, more than six million people worldwide are living with Parkinson’s disease (PD), making it the second most common neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer’s disease. Often, PD symptoms begin with a slight tremor in the finger, thumb, hand or jaw that increases over time ...

On a gray Saturday afternoon in March, artist Sofie Swann is in her light-filled basement studio standing in front of three large cardboard boxes. She gently lifts each one to reveal a small, brightly colored, shiny wood panel painted with brightly colored flowers. “These are my little resin pieces, and they’re curing right now,” she says, carefully placing each cardboard ...