The Fabulous 413

There’s a lot of history to be learned in opera and recitals; but this weekend at Tanglewood will take new histories and reframe the music around them to expand the way we look at not just vocal music but a continent that western documentation has largely ignored.   African Queens is a newly commissioned song cycle that highlights the lives of 7 Afro-diasporic figures of femme royalty. And that’s...

Five centuries of theater history has taken root in the mountains, and is bringing audiences, thespians young and older, and more of the community together to celebrate the art of stagecraft.  For the past 50 plus years, Shakespeare and Company has been bringing works to life on stage and  teaching others the work that goes into making staged productions spectacular. And since their move to their...

We’re headed out into the wilds to a not so clearly disclosed location in Hampshire county to witness epochs of evolution and change in the hills and dales.  Professor and author Noah Charney takes us deep into the woods to explore one of the locations described in his book “These Trees Tell a Story: The Art of Reading Landscapes”, where along with some budding naturalists we see how the happening...

Good news and Bad News.  Bad News First: The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has lost over a billion dollars of funding. Billion with a "B." Which is bad, but what does that mean for NEPM itself? A lot of us are asking that question, so to make a little more sense out of last night’s surreptitious vote to defund public media , we’ll speak with NEPM’s own president Matt Abramovitz to gain some...

Today is historical and history making.  In Great Barrington where one of the pioneers of American Civil Rights movement and black academia was born. Author, sociologist, historian, activist, founder of the NAACP and more, W.E.B. Du Bois is getting a new tribute right in the heart of the town at the Mason Library after years of planning. We’ll speak with Ari Zorn, Dubois Thomas, Julie Michaels, an...

We’re connecting with the Celtic diaspora on two sides of the river, much like they straddle the North Channel. In Florence this weekend, many will gather fife, pie, and drum, don their kilts and take to Look Park for the Glasgow Lands Scottish Games, where over 700 musicians, crafters, athletes, and more will gather to celebrate, and we’ll speak with founder Peter Langmore about the new things th...

We’re building legacies, and celebrating the ones already here.  Including the 6th, 7th, and 8th generations of farmers growing blueberries for the pick your own season in Granville. But you can tell by the name of Maple Corner Farm that’s not all they do, so we brave the mountain to get a glimpse of the sweet blue treats and hear all the pots that the Ripley Family has put their farm’s proverbial...

 We’re meeting new community through books, bows, bottles, and hurtling millions of light years from entirely different solar systems.  Mill River Archery has gathered folx curious about the bow to make them better shots. We head out to their training grounds on the Hampshire College Campus to talk with their coaches, participants, and more about the impetus for forging their own collective, the k...

We’re bringing it back! And by it, we mean a beloved festival making it’s return to Springfield’s South End Community. Our Lady of Mt. Carmel is launching three days of community, festivities, food and communion in its Italian Feast and we speak with Anna Daniele and Chris DiMauro about the revitalization of the center, the festival, and how heritage can be a launch pad to engender everyone coming...

We know that the area is rife with a legacy of abolition, but it’s very different when you get to see the places where that history happened up close. This Saturday July 12th, The Pan African History Museum is hosting an interactive tour of downtown sites significant to this movement, and we chat with PAHMUSA Vice President Drew Keaton, and Springfield Preservation Trust President Erica Swallow ab...

We got a glimpse of the devised theater work STILL last year, but it’s been in progress ever since and a new iteration will premiere this weekend at the APE Gallery. We speak with creator Marcia Gomes about the changes the work has been through. And we’ll also speak with Roberta Uno, longtime director and founder of New World Theater, has returned to the area and STILL is just one of her many proj...

This week is enriching the cultural landscape just down the street from us in a festival and a brand new place to see music, shows, and more.  Of course we had to go and broadcast live from their brand new facilities, so today we broadcast live from the newly 2 days old HOPE Center for the Arts,  and in celebration of the Springfield Jazz and Roots Festival happening this weekend We'll hear from m...

Today, we have music to soothe the dairy beast. Which may not be how that phrase works; but we’re betting it could work at Fletcher Farm , in Southampton, where their cows and calves are not only bringing milk to the community, but fostering connection and learning amongst those who may one day also lead their own herds. 2nd generation farmer Nicole Schwab lets us explore among her 80 heads of mil...

Today on The Fabulous 413 as the nation looks back in time to 249 years ago and the Declaration of Independence, we take you back to two weeks ago to the Green River Festival in Greenfield, where we recorded a series of pop-up concerts. We’ll hear the Brattleboro Vermont glam, post-rock new wave band THUS LOVE play songs from their new album, All Pleasure, and hear about how their DIY house concer...

We’re seeking out public places where there is AC that also happen to be fonts of knowledge.  Millions of years ago, the Connecticut River was a hotbed of dinosaur activity, and Dino Trail Week explores the contributions the Asparagus Valley has brought to the study of the “terrible lizards” through the past two centuries. We head the Beneski Museum to meet Museum Educator Fred Venne, student doce...

Two artists, two continents, and two endeavors to bring more awareness to each of their peoples.  At Springfield Museums, a collection of paintings aimed at raising awareness and honoring the many missing and murdered Indigenous women across the Americas is currently on display. Nayana LaFond’s Portraits in RED melds realism with Indigenous belief as it puts faces to the ongoing issue, and we hear...

We’re taking a close look at local innovations and memory.  We’ll head to Hatfield where a prodigal farmer is building culinary forward farm dreams. Sara Fil has a history at farm stands, but with Ruffled Feathers Farm she’s now providing vegetables, flowers, herbs and eggs to adventurous locals, and we’ll chat with her about the importance of the stand to her work.  We’ll also look to Hadley and...

We’re taking a local approach to national affairs, especially because at the top of this administration’s list of issues is immigration, and this particular nation of immigrants is about to celebrate a birthday.  Some of those immigrants will be naturalized as American citizens in Northampton on the 4th of July this week . and we’ll hear from folx who get to see that process firsthand from the Cen...

Now that we’ve given you a list of local authors to read, you need a place to actually flip through the pages right?  Then you may want to get thee to Westhampton this weekend, where they’ll be Lounging for Literacy on June 28th, both to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the library’s move and renovation and raise awareness and funds in light of the national cuts to Museum and Library services lib...

Today we'll speak with two folx who are trying their very hardest to make the nation better, through reading materials, and reading the writing slowly getting scrawled on walls Locally an incredibly prolific author illustrator not only has a new novel to celebrate, but a whole exhibit looking at her books, her paintings, her process, and whole career. A living retrospective of Grace Lin’s work is...

Today we're bringing other locales into closer view.  In literature, we’ll dig into Mattea Kramer’s new novel The Untended, which takes a very close look at a fictional woman’s interaction with the very real opioid crisis with a Greenfield Backdrop. We hear about treading proverbial lines between the real and unreal on the page from someone who’s been addressing issues like these in the public sph...

Today on the Fabulous 413, we’re turning dreams into reality, which is a tall order, but sometimes, the magic just happens.  In Northampton which has had a particular hole in its culinary landscape. We head to the future home of Lichter and Levin Jewish Delicatessen to hear from the music stewarding duo at the helm of this endeavor, the eponymous Emily Lichter and Ben Levin, as well as their talen...

We are winding down from an amped up weekend locally and globally Locally, the Green River Festival wrapped yesterday, and beyond our live show being the very first thing on any of the stages as the festival opened, a good handful of artists agreed to sit with us for pop-ups throughout the course of those 3 days. Including one who nearly didn’t make it to the festival at all. We hear music and sto...

We’re in Franklin County, on the country fairgrounds, ready to begin 3 days of music, fun, and community in Greenfield. It’s time once again for the Green River Festival. What started as a small birthday party for a local radio station has grown to be much much bigger, from 1 day to 3, and with or without hot air balloons, it’s still one of the most fun gatherings around.  And we are broadcasting...

Today on the show, we double your Pride, double you chance to party for equality.  We’ll head up to Charlemont and get wet at Zoar Outdoors . Jason Costa and Ann Gillard take us out on the river for a paddling experience, not unlike the ones folx will experience at their Pride event this weekend . We’ll hear about the importance of creating queer space outside, and hear about the classes, clinics...