In 1894 the first book in the handwritten shelf list is Walt Whitman, poems like Leaves of Grass. In 1874, you might have been more likely to find Edmund Morris’ Ten Acres Enough.’ … When the Williamstown public library first opened to the town, it began with a collection of 100 agricultural books in a corner of H. Cole’s General Store.
READ ARTICLELocal news reimagined
You want to know what to do this weekend in the Berkshires. You want to find places only the local people know. You want to meet people who feel the same way? We have color coming with the spring, like Maya Freelon’s artwork at WCMA. Come out and explore …
We live in a rare place in Western Massachusetts. We have minds at work out here in the country, and minds at play too. I live and write here. I’m a local journalist, so I get to walk behind the scenes and talk with people about what they love. We all want connection — we want to laugh, share ideas, dance barefoot and listen to music on a mountain at night. Let’s go see what we can find.
Stories of the week
Earliest whispers of spring — #berkshireweekend
bale of turtles. That’s the collective noun we find for the gathering on a rock by the water, all basking in the unexpected warmth of a late winter day.
READ ARTICLEAbout Town
Want to know what’s happening in town this weekend? From North Adams to Lenox, we’re seeing a new energy in the Berkshires. Wherever we are in the pandemic now, locals are adapting and new voices are coming in. If you’re looking for nightlife or a good cup of coffee, a vintage t-shirt or an artisan fair … take a look through our Berkshire towns.
The town names above also become links to their town pages — two to three of them
GO DOWNTOWNTheater and music
We have singer-songwriters, folk and bluegrass legends, emerging composers and Yo-yo Ma … sometimes all of them together. We’re known around the world for the people who come here to play, and they can be global travelers or as local and familiar as the farmer’s market on the corner. Or both. And we can dance to the beat.
FIND ART • MUSIC • THEATERrecent stories
Daf Moby project immerses in Melville — one page a day
Last fall, on Rosh Hashanah, Williams College professors Jeffrey Israel and Edan Dekel began reading Moby-Dick together … and they have found the experience transformative.
READ ARTICLEGenée Coreno imagines new futures for WAM Theatre
WAM Theatre sees the year ahead as time of transformation, as Genée Coreno becomes their new artistic director — and their 2024 season opens with nationally acclaimed singer songwriter Tracy Grammar in Be Here Now.
READ ARTICLEQuantum leaping into the spring — #berkshireweekend
Today feels like time traveling … a leap day sounds like a quantum dancer, something out of a science fiction novel, step into this moment and it can take you anywhere.
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