Giant heads gaze upward, and tall women stretch out in the sun. The sculptures in Ledelle Moe’s ‘When’ at Mass MoCA look smooth and weathered, as though they have been lying in a river bed for years.
Read articleMartin Luther King in the 21st century
We honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. this week. And what do we tell each other this year, as we think of him? … As I look ahead tonight, I remember Ross Gay telling the story of a fig tree growing in Philadelphia.
Read articleThe center can hold (January 6 newsletter)
Tonight while a mob is attacking government buildings, while I am sitting safe by the fire at the foot of a mountain in a town where I know college students have been threatened a mile away and somehow stood tall and gone on, I am reading Danusha Lameris’ poems for the first time.
Read articleClear skies ahead (December 30 newsletter)
A few weeks ago I was walking with a friend at night, wandering into back corners of town I’d never seen before, and she asked me what holiday rituals look like for me.
Read articleHolidays and humor grow near home (December 3 newsletter)
The first weekend in December — winterberry are deep red along the road. The long row of them in front of Windy Hill Farm is enough to turn my head when I drive by.
Read articleBerkshire conversations begin to probe the future (November 4 newsletter)
We’re on pause tonight. The country is waiting for a decision that can re-shape our lives, and we’re hunkered down. Daylight Savings is past, and the nights are getting longer and darker. It can be easy to feel cut off on a night like this.
Read articleOpening a conversation takes courage
How are you? That seems like such a small question in these hard days. It should be a simple thing to turn to someone with warmth and respect. And right now it feels vital.
Read articleLooking for fall brightness on the back roads (Oct. 1 newsletter)
Color has come all at once this weekend. … The leaves let the light through, and here for a stretch the woods are rich and sunlit and almost too bright to look at. I can’t ever take it for granted.
Read articleJohn Steinbeck calls attention to fall color on the back roads
If I could be anywhere in the world today, I’d be here. I might be here in 1960, when John Steinbeck drove through with Charley (his dog) in the cab of his truck.
Read articleGround/Work gathers international artists at the Clark
Songbirds were flying through the sculpture. … I was walking slowly along Analia Saban’s Teaching a Cow How to Draw, one of the six new works in the Clark Art Institute’s first outdoor sculpture show, Ground/Work.
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