Manchester/Nashua art scene (Portsmouth, Durham: school, live, moving to)

[bazisale]

Hello,

I'm moving to New Hampshire from Iowa this summer, so I can eventually go to UNH for grad school (need to get in-state tuition first). I'm torn between the Manchester/Nashua area and the Portsmouth/Durham area, but I'm leaning towards Manchester/Nashua due to the larger population. I'm interested in music and poetry, and am planning on building a social life through those activities. Does anyone know the local arts scene? Number of young people (I'm 24), number of events and venues, overall culture/feel? I know Manchester has a weekly poetry slam. Does anyone know what it's like? Some of the posts on this forum make Manchester and Nashua sound like degenerate hellholes. Hopefully that's not true


Thanks

[Alfheim]

There's not a lot of one. If you're moving for UNH only, you're better off going with a seacoast town for proximity to school and to Boston or Portland, both if which will have much more robust night lives.

Manchester and Nashua aren't hellholes compared to some places, even in New England they're nicer than, say, Mattapan or Dorchester, but they're much worse than practically everywhere else in NH. You don't really love the state if you're not into a lot more natural activities and prefer being a bit isolated. You may see art in both places, but there's not much of a scene to go with it, and what scene there is will be older folks who are in retirement, married rich, or are "discovering themselves" after a divorce.

It's there, but probably too widely dispursed to make a legitimate social life out of.

Out of curiosity, what are you going to UNH for? It's a nice enough school, but unless you go to a Yale or Harvard, there's not really any reason to move five hundred miles for any particular school. You can probably find something comparable nearer to your family and social circles, or closer to Boston if you are really interested in a robust art scene.