Tibetan art and tacos in the snow — #Berkshireweekend

It must be March. One day I’m braving the wind on North Street for tacos from Placita Latina, and the next I’m walking across a hayfield in the snow.

In this ragged half-winter half-spring, they can both help to get the blood moving. The carnitas are warm and generous with pork and green sauce — on a half-blustery day in the slush, they’re the essence of comfort food.

One morning ice is coating the trees, and the next I’m walking around North Adams in the sun, contemplating hot chocolate at the new tea shop on Eagle Street, and a deep orange wool sweater at Savvy Hive.

This time of year it can be hard to know what’s open until you get there. I’m thinking maybe we should start a collection of ways to keep warm on odd Tuesday mornings.

And then on the phone with a choreographer in South Africa. Thulani Chauke is telling me about his new work coming to Mass MoCA, and he says at home people say when you want to dance and you’re looking for music, you can move to the rhythm of your own heartbeat. …

Marie-Dolma Chophel's abstract painting Inner Dialog pulses with elemental color in blues and greens, amber and dun. Press photo courtesy of WCMA, taken by Kate Abbott
Marie-Dolma Chophel

Marie-Dolma Chophel's abstract painting Inner Dialog pulses with elemental color in blues and greens, amber and dun. Press photo courtesy of WCMA, taken by Kate Abbott


Marie-Dolma Chophel’s ‘Inner Dialog’ holds me still as I navigate Across Shared Waters, the new show of contemporary and traditional Tibetan paintings, photographs, sculpture and collage at the Williams College Museum of Art. … Now that the show is open, I can give you some of my impressions up close.

Steve (in hat) and his father Bill Robinson pose for a portrait at Sunny Banks Ranch in Becket.
Photo by Caroline Bonnivier Snyder

Steve (in hat) and his father Bill Robinson pose for a portrait at Sunny Banks Ranch in Becket. Press photo courtesy of the Berkshire Eagle

Roberta McCulloch-Dews talks with Bill Robinson and his son, Steve, at their 200-acre ranch in Becket. Clad in thick rubber boots, jeans and a plaid shirt, Steve was outside working near the stables and looked every bit the part of a cowboy …

Events coming up …

Find more art and performance, outdoors and food in the BTW events calendar.

Orange and gold tulips bloom at the annual Daffodil and Tulip Festival at Naumkeag in Stockbridge.
Apr 25 2024 @ 10:00 am
Naumkeag's annual Spring Celebration returns for its 5th year, as the eight acres of gardens bloom with bulbs to celebrate spring in the Berkshires.
A boy and a lamb walk by the pasture at Hancock Shaker Village.
Apr 25 2024 @ 11:00 am
Hancock Shaker Village welcomes visitors to meet their newest farm babies – lambs, piglets, calves, chicks and kid goats, and enjoy events and activities throughout the Village.
Orange and gold tulips bloom at the annual Daffodil and Tulip Festival at Naumkeag in Stockbridge.
Apr 26 2024 @ 10:00 am
Naumkeag's annual Spring Celebration returns for its 5th year, as the eight acres of gardens bloom with bulbs to celebrate spring in the Berkshires.

By the Way Berkshires is a digital magazine exploring creative life and community — art and performance, food and the outdoors — and I’m writing it for you, with local voices, because I’ve gotten to know this rich part of the world as a writer and journalist, and I want to share it with you.

If you’d like to see the website grow, you can join me for a few dollars a month, enough for a cup of coffee and a cider doughnut. Members get access to extra stories and multimedia, itineraries a bookmark tool. Let me know what you're looking for, and we’ll explore together.

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