Julia Martin

2 months ago | njmonthly.com | Julia Martin

Padel, the newest racquet-sport craze, is finding fans in New Jersey. Photo: Courtesy of Eddie Larios of Cure CompaniesMove over, pickleball. Another racquet sport, called padel, is hitting the Garden State. Pronounced “paddle” or “pa-DELL,” this hybrid of tennis and squash is the fastest-growing racquet sport worldwide. There are now three padel clubs in New Jersey, with more on the way. Padel United Sports Club in Cresskill, with six indoor courts, opened last June.

Jan 10, 2025 | njmonthly.com | Julia Martin

At the Montclair Art Museum, hanging sculpture, representing earrings, frames a space where Indigenous artists can perform. Photo: Courtesy of Montclair Art Museum/Jason WycheSince its founding in 1914, the Montclair Art Museum has been renowned for its extensive collection of Indigenous North American art. In recent years, however, its iconic Native American gallery began showing its age. A new iteration, a three-year-long collaboration with Native artists and scholars, opened last fall.

Dec 7, 2024 | njmonthly.com | Julia Martin

A WINGS sound-therapy session with Tibetan singing bowls. For some women arriving at the St. Barnabas Hospital Cancer Center for treatment in the early 2000s, Lynn Ferrer was the welcome presence greeting them and easing their pain. The holistic nurse, who died in 2023, used a combination of Reiki (gentle touch), guided imagery, meditation and breath work to help women relax before chemo and radiation.

Dec 7, 2024 | njmonthly.com | Julia Martin

For the first time since the Pathmark supermarket closed in 2015, the abandoned shopping mall at Montclair’s Lackawanna Station is bustling. A pop-up holiday market, featuring 200+ vendors of crafts, clothes, jewelry, fresh produce, books, baked goods and art, now occupies the mall’s 100,000 square feet of vacant space. It’s open every Saturday and Sunday from 11 am to 6 pm, through Sunday, January 19.

Nov 25, 2024 | njmonthly.com | Julia Martin

At Franciscan Charities in Newark, a volunteer helps a child pick out a holiday gift. Photo: Courtesy of Franciscan CharitiesCaught in the holiday whirl, it can be easy to forget the least privileged among us. But Franciscan Charities, dubbed “small but mighty” by the Obama Foundation, remembers. For the past 20 years, the group of mostly volunteers has been providing hot meals to the residents of Newark’s Central and West wards four days a week.