The Fabulous 413

Today our size is shifting to get larger and smaller simultaneously.  We talk with Mr. Universe, Salman Hameed of Kainaat Studios and Hampshire College, who explains the proposed cuts to NASA and the NSF and the potential impact on both academic institutions (like the five colleges) and American astronomical research as a whole.  Then, just to narrow our aperture a bit, we explore books all over t...

Today we've got copious amounts of music, some joy of saving the planet and two sterling examples of resisting labels within one’s artwork.  One of our neighbors to the north is about to make a visit to the area, Canadian independent artist JayWood . We chat with him about his day job as a postal worker, the impact that grief has had on some of his most poignant works and the clandestine meeting t...

We’re looking at the center of a couple of venn diagrams and the overlapping circles that bring those centers together.  For instance, the artistic circles often overlap through the fantastic venues we have in the area. At the Shea theater, Nero Orchestra will conclude its season tomorrow night, and on that same stage the next night, Eggtooth Productions will bring in partners in unconventional th...

Today we're spending all our time in higher education.  Merriam-Webster Senior Editor and UMass Amherst alumna Emily Brewster joins us on the upper floors of the W.E.B. Du Bois Library to meet with digital content editor Lauren Hubbard. She introduces us to the library’s most notorious residents, the peregrine falcons, with names that should be of particular interest to our Word Nerd. The birds ma...

We’re bringing up the lights on cool community action.  Starting May 1, the fourth annual Easthampton Film Festival will kick off, with 4 days of panels, workshops, concerts and more than 30 films in a wide range of genres. We hear from organizer Chris Ferry about putting this event together, and creating community among the filmmakers in the area We also get to talk with folx involved in a wester...

Today is all rainbows, double rainbows in fact! We start with Hampshire Pride , marching in Northampton this Saturday, May 3. They’re the first and longest running pride event in the area, which means its events and leadership have seen a lot of evolution. We chat with organizers Clay Pearson and River Matos about what’s in store for the community this year and what they’ve learned in their three...

What do you get when you mix a novel approach to foster care, devised theater, and youth leadership all in one place? The answer is Truth Tellers Theater , an inter-generational theater group where cast members use the healing powers of storytelling, community and performance to share their own tales with audiences each spring. We head to Holyoke to talk with folx from the Treehouse Foundation, He...

Today is for the brothers and the birds, not a bee in sight. Well, seeing actually factors into it, too! We head to Amherst where, on a particularly idyllic corner of the UMass campus, hordes of migratory birds are making their way back north. Professor Nathan Senner grabs binoculars and his trusty dog, Oliver, to head out into the woods to discover the many feathered friends that are finding thei...

Today we’re getting extra retro with an extra New England pastime, archaic conundrums and classic ways of making art.  The art is found up and down the Hilltowns through Hampshire and Franklin Counties. The Asparagus Valley Pottery Trail is a network of studios that are open for the public to witness ceramic artists in their craft. We head to Florence to peek at the only wood fired kiln along the...

It’s Earth Day! So we’re going to look at our mother through local lenses and explore our waterways, our skies, and of course, the ways we feed ourselves and each other.  If we’re looking up, light pollution has more factors than just keeping you up at night, and one of the organizations seeking to bring more awareness to those factors is Northampton City Lights . Their mission is to Protect human...

Today is Patriots Day , a holiday to commemorate the battle of Lexington and Concord and the “shot heard round the world” in what is now the 617 area code. But today in the 413, we look back to last week when western Mass. planted a flag on our OWN side of the state and declared April 13 as 413 Day . At our party at CitySpace in Easthampton, we were joined by regular guests of the show including E...

We are encouraging you to stay up late because The Iron Horse, now almost a year in its new incarnation, is bringing back late shows. We preview tonight’s doozy of dance, connection and genre defying music. For Live Music Friday we hear from Bella’s Bartok as they wrap up their winter/spring residency at the horse. We hear how their latest album, “Apocalypse Wow,” sounds on its feet and learn how...

Today, as every day, we are speaking the language of community near and far and in all walks of life.  For instance, we’re getting to know an organization that services the Berkshires (and a little beyond) to increase access to healthy food despite widespread funding cuts. We chat with Berkshire Agricultural Ventures Executive Director Rebecca Busansky about the Market Match program, which is curr...

We are covering a lot of ground. Including a brand new venture for a collective right here in town, Marketplace at Gasoline Alley , a collective effort of 5 entrepreneurs who are expanding their offerings attached to the Urban Food Brood . We speak with some of the folx who’ve settled into this new spot, Kate Forest and Missy Doe of Forest Doe Botanicals and Kristina Marie Denson of Journey’s Lemo...

Two tales of agriculture and commerce, alike in virtue, a spring of hope from a winter of despair.  The Cannabis Control Commission recently swept through western Mass, making visits with officials and business owners in all 4 counties. Despite the recent shake-ups within the department, they’re currently looking forward into expanding how businesses might offer more green to the people through so...

Although the United States was never specifically a penal colony, it is hard to deny that systematic penal labor was crucial to the founding of the nation. We think it’s important to consider as we prepare to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Revolutionary War.  So today, we look at an art exhibit at Wistariahurst Museum that highlights the carceral system as we know it today. “ Prison Reimag...

It is a day of information for the day of our area code, April 13,  which we’ll be celebrating this Sunday in Easthampton, but it turns out we’re not the only ones! Because western Mass. is too celebrate-able for just one party, we talk to Liz Rosenberg of The Toy Box in Amherst to talk about their 413 day festivities, and learn about even more celebrations across the Bay State. We have Live Music...

The Berkshires has been a dance incubator and nesting place and incubator for nearly 100 years. So, today we head to the grounds of Jacob's Pillow in Becket to get a sneak peek at their upcoming festival. Jacob’s Pillow’s executive director, Pamela Tatge , is nearing a decade at the helm of the organization, and we hear about some of her highlights from this season and her tenure.. And we talk to...

Last year, Phil Korman of CISA announced his retirement. And just recently, our friends at the organization have found someone to fill his shoes. We talk to the new director, Jennifer Core, to hear her connections to agriculture in western Mass. and beyond, and how her insights from her own farm help push the organisation’s mission further. Our resident Word Nerd, Emily Brewster of Merriam-Webster...

We constantly strive to be renaissance people because knowledge is power, and everyone wants to be able to properly MacGyver things. But, never in the course of the show have we seen a farm that does it like Barberic Farms . So, we head to Shelburne to see all the adorable lambs get their legs and discover the myriad of pots that Barbara and Eric Goodchild have their hands in, from wool to iron to...

It is National Poetry Month, and as the world could use more art [full stop], we broadcast live from the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst.  We hear some of the reclusive poet’s work and about who was instrumental in getting her words posthumously published with the museum’s executive director, Jane Wald. Plus, we learn about some of the museum’s upcoming programs and exciting updates on the groun...

If the arts funding cuts are due to continue until morale proverbially improves, we’re pretty sure that means a lot is on the chopping block.  Great birthday present for a nation 250 years young.  At that juncture is Mass Humanities. Among it’s other initiatives like the 4th of July readings of Frederick Douglass and the Clemente Course for the Humanities, the organization is slated to be at the c...

In the words of R.I.S.E Fest co-founder Gina M. Krosoczka, "art of all mediums has been scientifically proven to increase self-esteem, foster community and connection, and process emotions, feelings, trauma and so much more." So, today, we’re learning about folx at the beginning of their artistic journeys, someone with unlikely displayed artistry and someone who has been making copious amounts of...

We’re jumping into National Poetry Month with two poets, extra descriptive language and a former state senator. One of these things may not be like the others, but is relevant to a key moment in history. Former Poet Laureate of Northampton Richard Michelson has written a new children’s book on the first presidential Passover Seder, “ Next Year in the White House .” We talk with him and Eric Lesser...

Literacy equals liberation, and each can take several forms.  To the letter of this equation, the western Massachusetts-based Literacy Project has been providing adult basic education programs and opportunities for 40 years. We talk with Executive Director Colleen Kucinski and Sagrario “Charro” Turner, a recent program graduate and commencement speaker, about filling this often overlooked gap in e...