The tapered wooden shapes are forms for making leather shoes. They are set here in the form of a woman’s body. Women need to feel safe, says the man leading a group to look at the work, and his voice carries across the gallery. When women came out to march […]
Read articleWest Stockbridge Chamber Players performs a full range of the music of America
A low reed lifts in a minor fourth. A chamber musician calls in the tone of a blues riff. When he came to America in 1892, Czech composer Antonín Dvořák found beauty in Spirituals and field songs, Gaelic fiddle or an Oglala or Lakota melody from the plains. He came […]
Read articlePhillip B. Williams — Love and sadness in free verse
Bound, it begins. ‘Wasn’t night what lingered where sweat left / salt, where breath touch-expired?’ Bound is the title of the first poem in Phillip B. Williams ‘Thief in the Interior,’ a book that opens with confinement and insistent motion and closes with a movement outward into a changed life.
Read articleMay is migration season in the Berkshires
In migration season, Berkshire naturalist Thom Smith finds birds from warblers to herons, wildflowers and other signs of May in the hills.
Read articleCaretaker Farm grows with the strength of community
“So many people have told me it’s their favorite part of living here, the most beautiful place on earth for them,” says Don Zasada, who farms Caretaker Farm in Williamstown with his wife, Bridget.
Read articleMothering takes grit and soul
May and Mother’s Day — and women are coming to town this week, dancing and playing music and telling stories, and drawing energy like trees in the rain. As I look through this week’s calendar, I read about Portuguese jazz, and I think of my mother singing to Ray Charles and […]
Read articleFind unexpected marvels in a small city
When I moved back to the Berkshires, almost 10 years ago now, I knew very little about Pittsfield … and as soon as I moved there, I began coming into contact with surprising parts of this old city.
Read articleThom Smith explores Bartholomew’s Cobble in wildflower season
Berkshire naturalist Thom Smith recalls a walk through Bartholomew’s Cobble, a Trustees of reservations Property in Sheffield along the Housatonic River.
Read articleShadblow on Pine Cobble
‘Are these shad blow? Because they’re all over up here.’ I ask my mother, because she taught me shad bush, serviceberry, years ago, walking the plank walk in the marshy hollow of the woods at the end of our street. But today I ask her by phone, because I’m standing halfway up Pine Cobble.
Read articleThom Smith wishes the Berkshires a happy May Day
May Day in the Berkshires traditionally means wildflowers. Berkshire naturalist Thom Smith offers a bouquet of images of blooms in the woods and fields
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