What would it take to live in a country I believe in? Mass Humanities will hold 76 readings of Frederick Douglass across the state this week to keep his words alive …
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Linda R. Campos photography
Local news reimagined
You want to know what’s happening in our communities, in Western Massachusetts, in the mountains out past the Connecticut River — forests and lakes, local food, town councils talking about jobs and housing … and the new bagel shop downtown, and a night of poems at the bookstore. You want to meet people around you.
This is local news on the ground. This is storytelling by people, for people — no GenAI, no ‘native advertising,’ no corporate interests, no big tech. We are listening. We’re asking questions, helping people put thoughts into words, understanding the shapes of the ecosystems we live in — we’re making creative spaces, where we can gather and reach out to one another.
We live in a rare place. 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. Come out and explore …
Photo by Kate Abbott
About 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, 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.
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Carolina Porras Monroy
Theater 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
Urban Bush Women lift up 1940s jazz
In mid-20th century Kansas City, musicians were influencing currents across the country. Urban Bush Women will hold the living beat of their spirit.
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Seeds tremble in open air — #Berkshireweekend
In Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, a chosen family of people are actively deciding to make a home, like families returning to their land and gardens in Lebanon at the risk of their lives.
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Shamel Pitts and TRIBE ignite a Touch of RED
Two dance artists feed a dynamic tension in one another in a harsh external world, as Shamel Pitts and Channce Williams perform at Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival.
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Wild Ginger — learning the woods in friendship
Thom Smith pulls a young plant free of the ground. It has soft, semi-circular leaves, and the root — slight and pale this early in the growing season — tastes pungent and peppery.
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Future Old Growth and Junteenth — #Berkshireweekend
Think of our Northeastern forests as one forest. A family of root systems connect blue spruce and granite to maple on limestone and butternut and cottonwood in the floodplanes …
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