High on Pine Cobble the color is deepening. When I climbed up a few days ago, the maple and beech and birch were in a glow, and I wandered along the ridge for awhile just breathing. In 20 years I had never walked the class of ’98 trail.
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Hubbard Hall lifts past and present voices for women’s rights
Women are talking in a public hall, debating passionately. They see the country at a turning point, shaken by an impeachment, an upsurge in violence and disputes over immigration and voting. It’s 1894 — and it’s today.
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BodySonnet dance collective embodies history at Chesterwood
BodySonnet, a new collective of dancers, returns to the Berkshires from New York City, drawing on Chesterwood and Andromeda for inspiration.
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A gift of story and song: W.E.B. DuBois on his home ground
W.E.B. DuBois traveled the world in his lifetime. He helped to shape ideals of independence in Africa and freedom and democracy in America. And I have begun to get to know him in the Berkshires, where he was born.
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Live performances revive outdoors in the Berkshires
A woman is singing in a low, strong alto. She is calling for a time of new beginning. A group of people are gathering outside, questioning authority and looking for action rooted in love. In August, Berkshire Theatre Group opens a revival of Godspell set in 2020, in the coronavirus pandemic — and shaped by it.
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The first Equity theatre in the country re-opens in the Berkshires
Harry Clarke, a one-man comedy thriller at Barrington Stage Company, is one of two live shows in the nation to open with Actors Equity approval in the pandemic. The other is the Tony award-winning musical Godspell with Berkshire Theatre Group — and they are both in Pittsfield.
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Composer Jacob Kerzner shapes music from Broadway to Edinburgh to COVID-19
In a rapidly changing world, in the midst of Covid-19 and political unrest, music and musical theater is evolving quickly — and musician and composer Jacob Kerzner is experiencing the evolution firsthand.
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Avery Sharpe’s 400 explores African American history
“Can you imagine 400 years of your history, 400 years of you – where you come from?” composer Avery Sharpe’s niece, Sofia Rivera, speaks her own words aloud in Sharpe’s newest album 400: An African American Musical Portrait. “I can only go back to 1619 in America. As a Black […]
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Song and Survival: Bernice and Mariah Lewis perform in national folk festival
Berkshire singer/songwriter Bernice Lewis has performed nationwide since she first came to the Kerrville Folk Festival four decades ago. This year, in Covid-19, she and her daughter Mariah have returned to festival — online.
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Parable of the Sower — science fiction feels current
Octavia Butler wrote The Parable of the Sower as a novel set in a world on the edge of collapse, in 2024, and Toshi Reagon has written an opera based on the book. I remember the nnight her music came here.
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