Russell Banks came to talk about how to put a book together, how to make a character human, how to make us admit that any character, no matter how broken, is like us — how to drop the defenses and put aside the scrims.
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Rowan Ricardo Philllips composes a poetry of democracy
Nationally acclaimed poet Rowan Ricardo Phillips has called his recent work civic poetry, poetry that speaks to national systems that can reshape daily life — poetry written with clear perception, depth and pain.
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Carrie Mae Weems holds her eye on the pandemic
Carrie Mae Weems is internationally known for her work in audio, digital images, video, and above all in photography. She has created Resist Covid: Take 6, a new public work, with messages for surviving in this hard time.
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Micah Rosegrant imagines new worlds
Micah Rosegrant interweaves prayer and performance and spoken word and creates a form, as they describe it, as close as two people talking at night. They came to the Berkshires this winter as an artist in residence at the Foundry.
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W.E.B. DuBois strengthens the soul of a community (February 17 newsletter)
This morning I remembered a day in July in a garden along the Housatonic River. A woman was singing in a strong, rich alto, leading a spiritual in the W.E.B. Dubois memorial garden, and we were thinking about how he felt about the town where he was born.
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Black in the Berkshires: Revealing the past enlarges the future
Frances Jones-Sneed has walked along the Housatonic River, finding and telling the stories of black men and women in the Berkshires who have reshaped this country since this country began.
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Will Amado Syldor-Severino speaks to silence
Will Amado Syldor-Severino, a senior fellow with Americorps Massachusetts Promise, is holding his three-week-old son, Abi, on a winter day, as he talks about diversity, his work with local teens and painful issues too often left unsaid.
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MoonCloud seasonal cocktails bring warmth home
How about a drink with a kick for a night with frost in the air — a touch of pumpkin, honey spiced with ginger and cloves? At Moon Cloud in Great Barrington, you can pick up a carefully blended bottle to bring home.
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You can’t hold hands with a computer screen (February 10 newsletter)
It’s a clear winter day, with the sun on the snow the way we haven’t seen it yet all winter, and it’s a holiday week. What does a holiday about union mean in a pandemic, when so many people are isolated?
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Parisian pastry adapts to the country at the Lost Lamb Bakery
Pumpkin tarts and spicy chocolate mousse … clam chowder and crusty baguette … where does New England meet a French pâtissière? In Stockbridge, Claire Raposo runs the Lost Lamb bakery and cafe.
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Can you feel the gound we’re standing on? (February 3 newsletter)
A friend has been asking me what it means to me to live in the country. She moved here a few years ago from the city, and she’s trying to feel it out. She is thinking about people who have come here in the pandemic.
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The Berkshires Farm Table Cookbook savors local stories
On a warm and quiet day, Elisa Spungen Bildner was sitting with Kim Wells, the farmer at East Mountain Farm in Williamstown. They had walked up into the woods where his pigs forage in summer …
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Zabian family builds businesses and trust on Main Street
Mike Zabian cuts a striking figure as he strolls in front of the Main Street building that bears his name, wearing dark gray slacks and an orange wool sweater-vest, smiling at people passing by.
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