The 2023 Festival of Books returns to Spencertown Academy with a giant book sale, writers talks and family programs, all free, September 2 to 4 (and a members-only preview sale on Friday afternoon and evening).
September 2 — Giant Book Sale – Free admission, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
More than 15,000 affordable, gently used books, CDs, DVDs, LPs and audio books sorted for easy browsing, a children’s room for young readers and a room for first edition, out-of-print and collectible books and ephemera. (Teachers with ID get a discount.)
The Pimm family find an unexpected visitor in their tub when they move into a Victorian house in New York City, in books by Bernard Waber. Kids can pose with the costumed character, get crafty with art activities, and listen to Lyle’s books read by storyteller Ann Gainer.
Eleanor Henderson, Everything I Have Is Yours: A Marriage — noon
Love endures, and, marriage, despite addiction, depression and chronic illness. In a probing memoir, Henderson chronicles her 20-year marriage with her husband, Aaron. A survivor of early childhood trauma, he faces physical illness and the pressures that come with it. Henderson explores the link between mental and physical illness. Today she will join in conversation with Brendan Mathews, associate professor of creative writing and literature at Bard College at Simon’s Rock.
Tamar Adler transforms leftovers lurking in refrigerators or cabinets into snacks, sauces and components of novel dishes. The recipes are no pie-in-the-sky notions. They emerge from her years in acclaimed restaurants where maximize taste and minimize waste ruled. In the home kitchen, this philosophy eyes aging vegetables, fruits and nuts, dairy, stale breads, meat and seafood, and more in a new light: sustainable yet sumptuous. An empty jar of almond butter inspires Empty Jar Nut Butter Noodles, or leftover salad becomes salad dressing. Joining Adler in conversation will be Shaina Loew-Banayan, author of the memoir Elegy for an Appetite, and chef and owner of Hudson’s award-winning Cafe Mutton.
Wesley Brown, Blue in Green — 3 p.m.
Jazz pulses throughout Brown’s novel, with race relations in mid-century America providing the backbeat. The story opens in August 1959, when legendary trumpeter Miles Davis is assaulted by a New York City policeman outside the club Birdland. He lands in jail just after the release of his landmark album, Kind of Blue.
The reinvented narrative lets the reader listen in on Davis’ tempestuous relationship with his wife Frances Taylor, an acclaimed dancer, and the voices of Lena Horne, Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Eartha Kitt and others. All are negotiating what Davis calls “the business known as show.” Brown will discuss his work with Gerald Seligman, a Grammy-nominated record producer who spent his professional life in the music business.
Sunday September 3
Giant book sale — 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Winners of the annual Young Writers Contest will read their entries — 10:30 a.m.
The contest encourages creative writing among students in grades 9-12 in Columbia County, NY, and Berkshire County, MA. The contest drew 28 fiction or non-fiction (personal essay) entries this year.
Jonathan Darman, Becoming FDR: The Personal Crisis that Made a President — noon
FDR’s life changed forever at age 39. While vacationing off the coast of Maine with his wife Eleanor, he received the devastating diagnosis of polio. With his political aspirations postponed, maybe evaporated, what mattered was his health. In an intimate chronicle of FDR’s illness, recovery and return to political power, Becoming FDR draws a clear and striking connection between his private struggles and his later public triumphs.
It reveals how personal hardship helped Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt become transformational, compassionate leaders. “Written with grace, ease, and a keen eye for human detail” said the Wall Street Journal. Joining Darman in conversation will be James Lawler, founder of Climate Now, a communication and policy hub, and of Osmosis Films, a creative studio.
Daphne Kalotay, The Archivists — 1:30 p.m.
Everyday people may appear to populate this vibrant collection, winner of the 2021 Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction, but Kalotay’s characters are anything but ordinary. In her deft hands, they reveal themselves in all dimensions, despite the narrow confines of the short story. They include a hardheaded realist, a grieving father, a frightened woman, lovers and ex-lovers, a mature teen, a resolute nonagenarian and more.
Their moving stories consider issues of identity, history, memory and a shared search for meaning. “In a world filled with loss,” said the New York Times, “this is a collection that offers affirmation and solace.”
Jane Roper, The Society of Shame
Roper’s satiric novel captures today’s moment in time: a philandering politician, a wife shunned then celebrated, a daughter caught in the maelstrom, an internet-fueled image campaign and a pinch of misogyny. Local TV catches Senate hopeful Bill Held in his underwear fleeing a house fire, his paramour collapsed nearby. Enter wife Kathleen, home early from a trip; the camera reveals a menstrual stain on the back of her pants.
Can’t a woman control her body and the narrative? Not when social media takes over with tweets and hashtags. The comedy of manners sees Kathleen swept along by a campaign she first abhors, then adores, and finally wrests control of. Kirkus Reviews characterized the novel as “the perfect balance of humor, heartbreak, and understanding.”
Author Jamie Cat Callan will facilitate the conversation between Kalotay and Roper. In addition to her many books, Callan is the creator of The Writer’s Toolbox: Creative Games and Exercises for the “Write” Side of the Brain.
Julie Kabat, Love Letter from Pig: My Brother’s Story of Freedom Summer — 3 p.m.
In the summer of 1964, hundreds of college students joined the Freedom Summer voter registration project in Mississippi, the author’s brother Luke among them. While he was there, the bodies of two missing student volunteers and a civil rights worker were found. Luke helped organize a memorial, taught in the Freedom School, and grappled with racism, violence and segregation.
Kabat, nicknamed “Pig” by her brother, has written an inspiring tribute based on Luke’s letters, diaries and other primary sources, including interviews with surviving Freedom School teachers and students. Love Letter from Pig is also a powerful reminder of the civil rights and racial inequality issues still facing the nation today. Joining Kabat in conversation will be Paul Murray, author of Seeing Jesus in the Eyes of the Oppressed and emeritus professor at Siena College.
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.
Stella Levi tells Michael Frank stories of the Juderia, the neighborhood on the Greek island of Rhodes where she’d grown up in a Jewish community that had thrived there for half a millennium.
Stella Levi tells Michael Frank stories of the Juderia, the neighborhood on the Greek island of Rhodes where she’d grown up in a Jewish community that had thrived there for half a millennium.
Bud Wobus, professor emeritus of Geology at Williams College, leads a geology presentation and walk looking at thje history of the granite slabs of the Manton Research Center and Tadao Ando-designed Clark Center.
Adapted from Kent Haruf’s novel, 'Our Souls at Night,' this World Premiere musical tells the joyful story of a man and a woman who, in advanced age, come together in a search for happiness and family.
Along with the Clark’s major summer exhibition, Edvard Munch: Trembling Earth, Manton Curator Anne Leonard presents the Clark’s full set of Munch's works on paper.
Adapted from Kent Haruf’s novel, 'Our Souls at Night,' this World Premiere musical tells the joyful story of a man and a woman who, in advanced age, come together in a search for happiness and family.
The Clark offers free watercolor painting — walk through Edvard Munch: Trembling Earth and pick up a miniature watercolor kit and try plein air painting outdoors.
The West Stockbridge Farmers Market offers fresh produce — fruits and vegetables in season, eggs, meats and cheeses, breads and baked goods, fudge and jams and more.
The museum serves local brews in artist Dean Baldwin’s-sculpture-turned-river-side-beer-garden, one night each week, with live local music outdoors under the stars.
Mass MoCA Senior Curator Susan Cross holds a conversation with American photographer Holly Lynton on Lynton’s first book, Bare Handed, a portrait of rural life throughout 21st-century America.
Murder and madness will haunt the Tina Packer Playhouse as Shakespeare & Company presents a three-performance reading of William Shakespeare’s tragedy.
The Sheffield Farmers Market returns outdoors with some 20 vendors — from pickles, seasonings and garlic, to Naji’s Mediterranean Cuisine, baked fresh wheat-free breads, local meats, honey and maple syrup and more.
Naumkeag will lead a Mindfulness in Nature series each Friday in summer, July 7 through September 8, with Sandrine Harris, meeting in the Afternoon Garden.
The Knights return to the Clark to celebrate the Edvard Munch with a selection of music from fellow Norwegian Edvard Grieg, Antonín Dvořák, Frederick Delius (a friend of Munch's) and more.
Anima, an immersive multidisciplinary installation by French visual artist/photographer Noémie Goudal, theater director Maëlle Poésy, circus artist Chloé Moglia, and composer Chloé Thévenin, reflects on the history of the earth’s climate.
Interweaving the classic songs and jams of The Grateful Dead, The Allman Brothers Band and The Band, Dead Man’s Waltz celebrates the crossover between The Dead, The Allmans and The Band.
Murder and madness will haunt the Tina Packer Playhouse as Shakespeare & Company presents a three-performance reading of William Shakespeare’s tragedy.
Explore author Edith Wharton's estate, including the woods, wetlands, and meadows that may have inspired her writing, and learn to know birds by sight and sound.
The West Stockbridge Farmers Market offers fresh produce — fruits and vegetables in season, eggs, meats and cheeses, breads and baked goods, fudge and jams and more.
The Sheffield Farmers Market returns outdoors with some 20 vendors — from pickles, seasonings and garlic, to Naji’s Mediterranean Cuisine, baked fresh wheat-free breads, local meats, honey and maple syrup and more.
Naumkeag will lead a Mindfulness in Nature series each Friday in summer, July 7 through September 8, with Sandrine Harris, meeting in the Afternoon Garden.
Chocolate peanut butter cookies, fresh flowers, jams and pickles and cheeses ... the North Adams Farmers Market returns weekly with more than a dozen farmers and makers.
Housatonic Heritage explores the past, present and future in the Berkshires, in open spaces and downtowns, historic sites and trails. Walks set out from many places between Pittsfield and Northwest Connecticut, and all of them are free.
Housatonic Heritage explores the past, present and future in the Berkshires, in open spaces and downtowns, historic sites and trails. Walks set out from many places between Pittsfield and Northwest Connecticut, and all of them are free.
Hershey Felder’s Beethoven takes audiences on a journey through Beethoven's life and work as a composer in 19th century Vienna, from his boyhood to his last years.
Naumkeag's horticulturist will lead a after-hours tour of the gardens while sipping on a glass of wine. Each month will offer a different topic for the garden.
The West Stockbridge Farmers Market offers fresh produce — fruits and vegetables in season, eggs, meats and cheeses, breads and baked goods, fudge and jams and more.
Alyssa Sakina Mumtaz speaks on Verse of Light: Resonances Between Islamic Art and the Shakers, along with the Stillness and Light Photography Exhibition.
Mass MoCA's artists-in-residence show their work at The Studios — where you may wander into surreal worlds, find kindship in nature and multimeda performance, follow an artist's journey from Delhi to Lahore ...
The Sheffield Farmers Market returns outdoors with some 20 vendors — from pickles, seasonings and garlic, to Naji’s Mediterranean Cuisine, baked fresh wheat-free breads, local meats, honey and maple syrup and more.
On a summer night, in the middle of a field on their midwest farm, a long-married couple sits on folding chairs to observe the seven stages of a lunar eclipse.
Funk, rock and reggae group the Feathers are back after seven years with Berkshire musicians Jordan Weller, Rob Sanzone, Joe Rose, Miles Lally and Tom Parker.
Chocolate peanut butter cookies, fresh flowers, jams and pickles and cheeses ... the North Adams Farmers Market returns weekly with more than a dozen farmers and makers.
On a summer night, in the middle of a field on their midwest farm, a long-married couple sits on folding chairs to observe the seven stages of a lunar eclipse.
Dewey Hall and Michael Lesko are partnering to revive a monthly open-mic-meets-variety show with an open creative soirée and a talented headlining act.
The West Stockbridge Farmers Market offers fresh produce — fruits and vegetables in season, eggs, meats and cheeses, breads and baked goods, fudge and jams and more.
Justin Adkins and Arianna Alexsandra Collins of HooRWA will lead a walk along the Hoosic River, identifying wild edible and medicinal plants and fungi.
Botanist Ted Elliman will lead a workshop and field trip to look closely at kinds of goldenrods and asters, striking and vivid blooms in late summer and fall landscapes.
Dream Away invites you to start your weekend jumping early with dance grooves all night long. Come to the deep woods disco and let it all hang out with DJ BFG.
FreshGrass returns with a lineup of classic bluegrass, folk, world and international musicians — Grammy-winning vocalist and banjoist Rhiannon Giddens, the Dropkick Murphys and many more.
The Sheffield Farmers Market returns outdoors with some 20 vendors — from pickles, seasonings and garlic, to Naji’s Mediterranean Cuisine, baked fresh wheat-free breads, local meats, honey and maple syrup and more.
Sonoro performs a blend of jazz, latin, and classical music, bringing a jazz-like freedom and Latin emotion to classical works to make them new and unexpected.
On a summer night, in the middle of a field on their midwest farm, a long-married couple sits on folding chairs to observe the seven stages of a lunar eclipse.
The Black Legacy Projct band kicks off their first tour with an album release show on Fridayat the Guthrie Center - literally where the Black LP journey began.
FreshGrass returns with a lineup of classic bluegrass, folk, world and international musicians — Grammy-winning vocalist and banjoist Rhiannon Giddens, the Dropkick Murphys and many more.
Chocolate peanut butter cookies, fresh flowers, jams and pickles and cheeses ... the North Adams Farmers Market returns weekly with more than a dozen farmers and makers.
Housatonic Heritage explores the past, present and future in the Berkshires, in open spaces and downtowns, historic sites and trails. Walks set out from many places between Pittsfield and Northwest Connecticut, and all of them are free.
FreshGrass returns with a lineup of classic bluegrass, folk, world and international musicians — Grammy-winning vocalist and banjoist Rhiannon Giddens, the Dropkick Murphys and many more.
Hancock Shaker Village will celebrate the beauty of Autumn in the Berkshires at their annual Country Fair with family entertainment, live music and dance performances, workshops and more.
Berkshire potters will open their studios, welcoming all comers to meet the makers and learn about the craft in a free weekend with demonstrations and guest artists.
Housatonic Heritage explores the past, present and future in the Berkshires, in open spaces and downtowns, historic sites and trails. Walks set out from many places between Pittsfield and Northwest Connecticut, and all of them are free.
On a summer night, in the middle of a field on their midwest farm, a long-married couple sits on folding chairs to observe the seven stages of a lunar eclipse.
A collective of formerly incarcerated women and theater artists are co-creating an original theater piece, working with theater makers through the 2nd Street organization in Pittsfield.
A collective of formerly incarcerated women and theater artists are co-creating an original theater piece, working with theater makers through the 2nd Street organization in Pittsfield.
A collective of formerly incarcerated women and theater artists are co-creating an original theater piece, working with theater makers through the 2nd Street organization in Pittsfield.
In Sanaz Toossi's 2023 Pulitzer prizewinning play, four students meet regularly in a classroom in Iran, preparing to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language proficiency exam.
The West Stockbridge Farmers Market offers fresh produce — fruits and vegetables in season, eggs, meats and cheeses, breads and baked goods, fudge and jams and more.
Before her appearance at the 2023 Brooklyn Book Festival, Finnish illustrator, writer and visual artist Marika Maijala joins Mass MoCA for an artist talk on Rosie Runsand hands-on silkscreen with Gary Lichtenstein.
Winner of the Tony Award for Best Play, Copenhagen, explores the events surrounding a fateful meeting between two of the most brilliant minds of the 20th century: Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg.
In Sanaz Toossi's 2023 Pulitzer prizewinning play, four students meet regularly in a classroom in Iran, preparing to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language proficiency exam.
The Sheffield Farmers Market returns outdoors with some 20 vendors — from pickles, seasonings and garlic, to Naji’s Mediterranean Cuisine, baked fresh wheat-free breads, local meats, honey and maple syrup and more.
Winner of the Tony Award for Best Play, Copenhagen, explores the events surrounding a fateful meeting between two of the most brilliant minds of the 20th century: Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg.
On a summer night, in the middle of a field on their midwest farm, a long-married couple sits on folding chairs to observe the seven stages of a lunar eclipse.
In Sanaz Toossi's 2023 Pulitzer prizewinning play, four students meet regularly in a classroom in Iran, preparing to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language proficiency exam.
Chocolate peanut butter cookies, fresh flowers, jams and pickles and cheeses ... the North Adams Farmers Market returns weekly with more than a dozen farmers and makers.
On a summer night, in the middle of a field on their midwest farm, a long-married couple sits on folding chairs to observe the seven stages of a lunar eclipse.
In Sanaz Toossi's 2023 Pulitzer prizewinning play, four students meet regularly in a classroom in Iran, preparing to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language proficiency exam.
Winner of the Tony Award for Best Play, Copenhagen, explores the events surrounding a fateful meeting between two of the most brilliant minds of the 20th century: Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg.
On a summer night, in the middle of a field on their midwest farm, a long-married couple sits on folding chairs to observe the seven stages of a lunar eclipse.
Band leader Isaac Stanford brings fellow Philadelphia musicians, including David Streim and Freddie Berman from the Amos Lee band, to learn a selection of old steel guitar instrumentals.
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