Nantucket Magazine

The June issue of N Magazine is on stands now, and as we get the first taste of the summer, we feature some of the big names coming to the island this season. Our cover story features The Today Show's Jenna Bush Hager, who headlines the Nantucket Book Festival next month. We also chat with bestselling author Ann Patchett, who will speak at the Book Festival, and Parks & Recreation's Rashida Jones, who will be speaking at the Nantucket Film Festival. For this issue, we also take a look inside the former Surfside Lifesaving Station as it takes on its newest role as the home of Congregation Shirat HaYam. We check out the island's new Adult Baseball League, speak with En Plein Air artists, and hit the water with the fishermen who make up the dwindling fleet of bay scallopers. We also speak with author Andrew Sorkin on the state of the economy, and go dirt biking with Sergio Rondon, one of the dozens of young bikers in a growing island subculture that can be found regularly on the trails by the airport. Find these stories and much more in the latest issue of N Magazine, on stands now.

With just two days until the 50th annual Daffodil Festival, we took a look back at the first years and evolution of the car parade, tailgate and flower show. Photos courtesy of Mary Malavase and

Full gallery in the spring issue of N Magazine and online. Link in bio

1. The first flower show at the Boys Club
2. Picnicking in Sconset in 1985
3. John Maury decorating the Main Street Fountain, 1970
4. Jean MacAusland in her Rolls Royce Silver Ghost
5. The Silver Ghost in Sconset
6. A Ford Model T at the 1986 festival

If it wasn’t for a torn ACL and a broken collarbone, Malik Moore could have become one of the greats in the NBA. “We used to play in the backyard. I would tell my cousin, ‘I’m going to make it. Once I get into college, I’m going to make it,’” said Moore, who now coaches the Cyrus Peirce Middle School boys basketball team on Nantucket.

Moore has always been surrounded by the game of basketball. Growing up in Philadelphia, he cut his teeth in the driveway with friends who later become NBA stars. By his junior year of high school, he started seeing college recruiters in the stands at his games. Before his senior year in the late ’90s, he received an invitation to the New Jersey-based All American Camp, where he played against Kobe Bryant, Tim Thomas, Richard Hamilton and Shaheen Holloway.

Read Malik Moore’s full story and his journey to coaching basketball on Nantucket in the Spring issue of N Magazine.
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Thank you Coast Guard Station Brant Point and for yet another beautiful daffodil wreath! Who else is ready for the Daffodil Festival?
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At long last, the first N Magazine issue of the year hit the stands today. Our Spring issue, with a cover story on the 50th anniversary of the Daffodil Festival, features interviews with Town Moderator Sarah Alger on her 30th election, Lemon Press owners Darya Afshari Gault and Rachel Afshari on keeping culture alive through Iranian cuisine, and Cyrus Peirce Middle School boys’ basketball coach Malik Moore, on his journey from professional basketball to Nantucket. Find copies of the Winter issue on stands now or online at n-magazine.com.

When Darya Afshari Gault flips through her mother’s old photographs from her childhood in Iran, she can’t help but feel a profound sense of nostalgia for the country her family left behind. In one sepia-toned photo, her mom wears bell-bottomed jeans, a double-breasted blue coat and sunglasses, as her full head of hair flares up in the wind on the shores of the Caspian Sea in northern Iran. In another shot, she wears the same blue coat in a grove of persimmon trees, while in another, she’s on a blanket, picnicking on the beach.

These were the bygone days of 1970s Iran, when young people embraced modern fashion, and women could let their hair down. Darya remembers these times fondly—the family vacations to the mountains, the dancing and the feasts of Persian food. By 1979, however, those customs would be all but erased by the Islamic Republic that took power, suppressing freedoms for its citizens, especially women, who have had educational and career opportunities taken away and been mandated to conceal their hair in hijabs since the Islamic Revolution. In 1986, Darya and her family left Iran for the United States. They never returned. Now that Iran is at war again, its economy in shambles and its residents killed for protesting the government, the fond memories Darya has have become bittersweet.

“For many Iranians, including myself and my family, there hasn’t been much freedom to proudly celebrate the food or celebrate the culture without the political shadow following us,” said Darya, who opened Lemon Press in 2015 with her cousin, Rachel Afshari. “Sharing Persian cuisine, something that should be happy and joyous, wasn’t comfortable. What’s changed now is that people in America are becoming aware of the differences between the regime and the Iranian people. They’re seeing the courage of the Iranian population and understanding the culture has been living under oppressive systems for decades. Awareness has created space for us to be proud and share our heritage.”

Find the full story in the spring issue of N Magazine, on stands now!
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With the temperature hitting 75 degrees on the island, the daffodils are in full bloom, and Nantucket’s frozen winter is distant memory.

This year, the Nantucket Garden Club and Chamber of Commerce are celebrating 50 years of the Daffodil Festival. N Magazine is taking a look back at the last five decades of flower shows and car parades in our upcoming spring issue of the magazine. On stands next week 👀

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With Nantucket Harbor freezing over this week and unrelenting freezing cold temperatures keeping the ice put, we’re taking a look back through the archives at some other frozen years on the water.

Full gallery in the winter issue of N Magazine
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The saying “No good deed goes unpunished” could have been coined for Efren Peralta. He was working for a business last year that provided employee housing when a coworker was fired. Knowing that his coworker relied on employee housing also, Peralta let him crash at his house for a few nights. When his boss found out, he too was fired, making Peralta homeless.

“Rent is very expensive,” Peralta, born in the Dominican Republic, said through a translator. “You can pay rent and not eat, or eat and not have enough money to pay rent.” Only after five months into his odyssey of homelessness did he find The Warming Place, Nantucket’s free shelter for those without a roof over their heads.

For our Winter issue, contributing writer explores homelessness on Nantucket, including the so-called hidden homeless, or people perennially couch surfing or perhaps living in an unsanctioned, unplumbed dwelling like a cellar. As many as 100 others at any one time fall under the umbrella of what can be termed the literally homeless, spending their nights outdoors or maybe in a car or tent. For both groups, The Warming Place provides shelter.

Read the full story on The Warming Place in the winter issue. Link in bio 🔗
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