Twenty Summers

The celebrated novelist and memoirist Paul Lisicky joins performing artist John Kelly at the Hawthorne Barn, the pair dives into Lisicky’s work, Song So Wild and Blue: A Life with the Music of Joni Mitchell. With a beautiful reading from Lisicky, and intimate performance by Kelly, this Season 12 event is one we love to revisit.

Watch an incredible evening with Mason Jennings, filmed live at the Hawthorne Barn. This performance captures the heart and soul of the night—honest, immersive, and filled with moments you won’t want to miss.

Lonely Parrots perform live at the Hawthorne Barn in this full-length concert captured during Season Twelve. With infectious energy and playful musicality, the band’s set moves between upbeat grooves and intimate moments, inviting the audience into a world of joy, curiosity, and spirited connection.

In this workshop led by Thomas Allen Harris, participants gather to share stories about the queer ancestors—mentors, friends, family members, and lovers—who have shaped their lives. Drawing inspiration from Harris’ work with archives and memory, the session explores how photographs and storytelling can help excavate, activate, and safeguard queer histories that are often overlooked or under threat. Using Harris’ community photo-sharing methodology—developed through the Family Pictures Institute for Inclusive Storytelling and the PBS series Family Pictures USA—participants reflect on personal photographs and the stories they hold. Through these shared images and memories, the conversation surfaces Provincetown’s deep queer presence and imagines a queer ecology that spans space, time, and difference.

In a panel discussion moderated by National Book Award–winning author and Marine veteran Phil Klay, distinguished conflict journalists and photographers Victor J. Blue, Ashley Gilbertson, and Danielle Paquette discussed their work in conflict zones on several continents over the past couple of decades. They reflected on how their work had changed, how it had changed them, and, as we move into a chaotic time both in the news industry and in foreign relations—when old assumptions about the international order were quickly being upended—they examined the unique challenges of covering wars today.

Sabrina Song performs live at the Hawthorne Barn in this full-length concert captured during Season 12. With plain-spoken lyricism and warm melodic clarity, Song’s set moves between quiet introspection and emotional resonance, inviting the audience into moments of vulnerability, humor, and heartfelt connection.

Experience an intimate and engaging event with Ari Shapiro and Joshua Prager at the Hawthorne Barn, closing out our 2025 Season. Take a closer look at Ari’s voice, perspective, and storytelling, filled with insight, nuance, and memorable moments.

Get ready for an unforgettable moment as powerhouse band Glitterfox light up the Hawthorne Barn in a show-stopping takeover you won’t want to miss. Captured live during Twenty Summers’ Season Twelve, this newly released video brings all the energy, magic, and raw electricity straight to your screen—press play and experience it for yourself. The Portland, OR based band Glitterfox has released five singles in just six months under their new record label Kill Rock Stars, with two more arriving this Spring. The band’s been growing steadily since “Drive” came out in August 2023, with their indie rock recipe that deftly balances Southern songwriting shine and nostalgia-fueled anthems. The four-piece band’s songwriters and front persons, married couple Solange Igoa and Andrea Walker, have always channeled their personal struggles as well as experiences as queer, neurodiverse individuals into their songwriting. Bassist Eric Stalker and drummer Blaine Heinonen bring a love of Americana, grunge, and dance music into the mix. All of these influences can be heard on the band’s latest singles, produced by Chris Funk of The Decemberists, and in their spirited live shows as they prepare for their full-length album debut in 2025.

Australian-born Geraldine Brooks is an author and journalist who grew up in the Western suburbs of Sydney, attending Bethlehem College Ashfield and the University of Sydney. She worked as a reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald for three years as a feature writer with a special interest in environmental issues. Later she worked for The Wall Street Journal, where she covered crises in the Middle East, Africa, and the Balkans. In 1990, with her husband Tony Horwitz, she won the Overseas Press Club Award for best coverage of the Gulf War. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in fiction in 2006 for her novel March. Her novels People of the Book, Caleb’s Crossing, The Secret Chord and Horse all were New York Times Bestsellers. Her first novel, Year of Wonders is an international bestseller, translated into more than 25 languages. She is also the author of the nonfiction works Nine Parts of Desire, Foreign Correspondence and The Idea of Home. Her latest book, Memorial Days was released in 2024.

Enjoy dynamite talent Michael Mayo's concert at the Hawthorn Barn from June 2025 as part of our Season 12 programming. Michael Mayo leans on his intuition as a vocalist, composer, songwriter, and arranger. Much like molding and shaping a sculpture out of clay, he stretches his voice through layers of heavenly harmonizing, hard-hitting beatboxing, and heartfelt crooning. The Los Angeles-based phenomenon creates from the heart without filter or pretense, allowing his voice to transmit raw emotion above an ever-evolving backdrop of jazz, neo-soul, and R&B on his second full-length LP, Fly [Mack Avenue Records/Artistry Music], and more to come.