The Fabulous 413

Today is all about moving around.

We talk about bringing more gender equity to the construction trades with Amy Calandrella of Western Mass Tradeswomen, speak with state senator Jo Comerford, and eat locally even in the winter with Executive Chef Charlie David at Champney's Restaurant and Tavern in Deerfield.

Sometimes you’ve got to fend for yourself and create the space you need to see in the world Take medicine for example. With the wreck that the American medical system is, and despite the lengths MassHealth goes to alleviate those woes, there are still a good number of folx who find themselves ineligible for health insurance. To their rescue comes the organization Volunteers in Medicine , who provi...

We get into Greek wine for the latest thunderdome at Provisions in Longmeadow, talk about the intersection of art and equity with the folx from Art for the Soul Gallery and a workshop series they've recently launched, and have rising blues stars from the Berkshires Misty Blues head into the studios for Live Music Friday

We discover a multi generational collaboration between the School for Contemporary Dance and Thought and the Young at Heart Chorus that will open this weekend, cozy into a memoir by local author Anne Pikerton that holds grief and how we process it in new light, and Congressman Jim McGovern tackles his usual onslaught of issues on Capitol Hill and weighs in on the soon to be vacated State Senate se...

Things can truly change with more and intentional diversity. Take the medical field for example, where only 2.8% of doctors are Black women. A new documentary series is highlighting the stories of that select few and bringing them to a wider audience. Faces of Medicine is showing the first episode of this ongoing journey at several locations across western Massachusetts over the course of February...

We’re well aware that the music is everywhere. It’s in the slice of gay life in a lauded theater piece. The Easthampton Theater Company opens their production of Harvey' Fierstein’s Tony Award winning “Torch Song” this weekend at City Space’s Blue Room. The portrayal of the wants and growth of its main character Arnold Beckoff are an important snapshot of pre-AIDS era queer life in NYC and we chat...

It’s not déjà vu we’re feeling, but there’s something familiar in the air. It’ll be in the annals of history as a talk about Shay’s Rebellion explores the untold stories of the conflict in new context. This Saturday January 27th sees local author Daniel Bullen present his book “Daniel Shays’s Honorable Rebellion” at the Springfield Armory National Historic Site , where the movement was fired upon,...

We imbibe a few mocktails with Sean Billson at Jackalope for "Dry January", invite Muswell Hillbillies to the studio for Live Music Friday as they get ready for thier Tom Petty Tribute at The Drake in Amherst, and Boston Red Sox organist Josh Kantor plays your requests live.

We discover how Smith College Dining Services are furthering their efforts to be more plant based with help from the Humane Society, Discover the Black Legacy Project's mission to educate and create more racial equity through music and a concert happening in the Berkshires this weekend, and Congressman Jim McGovern gives us his weekly Capitol HIll Rundown.

Here in the throes of winter when the world slows, it becomes an interesting endeavor to seek out the ways we thrive. Take humans for example, where the accumulation of years is a thing that happens to most, and for which many are ill-prepared. However there’s a recently released documentary that looks at the connection and benefits of art later in life. Originally aired on Twin Cities PBS, “Art +...

January is when try our best to we ready ourselves for what’s to come. In some cases that’s aiding towns and municipalities in making environmental strides. The graduate program at The Conway School in Northampton has spend the last 50+ years subtly upending the status quo for their field by teaching whole-system sustainable land planning and design by working on real projects with real client par...

It’s Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s Birthday! The second youngest of our federal holidays! But how exactly did we get to the point where his birthday ends up being nationally recognized? And what is the real legacy that the civil rights icon has left behind? Clark University Professor and Amherst Resident Ousmane Power-Green about the long road to federal observance, and the dichotomy between the p...

Even though it’s a new year, it’s still cool to revisit older things. Singer-songwriter Peter Mulvey is living this example this evening with a celebration of an album for which he’s just started a kickstarter . In addition to hearing his fantastic songs and getting a little advice, we get to hear his take on some of the nuances of recording, and why it’s still important to do to connect with audi...

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday is on Monday. And it’s one of those rare years where we get to celebrate the holiday created in his honor on his actual day of birth. For over a decade there’s been an event in Springfield celebrating the legacy of the civil rights icon, while simultaneously highlighting the talents and progress of the city’s youth. MLK Jr. Family Services President Shannon R...

Today is everywhere, all at once. Or at least it’s trying to be. We check in with executive director of the Valley Community Development Corporation Alexis Breiteneicher to hear about some of the projects that the CDC has been doing around Hampshire County. Amidst their ecologically forward affordable housing projects they’re both starting and completing, we also delve into some of the issues that...

We’re checking in to take stock and just make sure we’re doing okay. Because not doing okay requires a change. In some cases that change is huge. Take Walker Farm at Whorttleberry Hill for instance, where proprietor Joan Walker left her previous career in the medical field to raise Devon Cattle humanely right at the point where Hampden County meets Worcester County. We speak with her about the imp...

We’re back from vacation! And it turns out we’re not the only ones. Following a nine-month round of renovations, 33 Hawley Street is open once again. So we bring in some folx from the core trio of groups that make up the Northampton Arts Trust to talk about what that re-opening means for the greater western Massachusetts arts community. Co-director/steward at Available Potential Enterprises (A.P.E...

We’re out to party on our last show of the year! For us, those celebrations definitely mean some bubbles. We head out to a collaborative champagne/sparkling wine tasting in Lenox. There, sisters Mary Daire of Dare Bottleshop & Provisions and Molly Lyon-Joseph of Pizzeria Boema , along with Boema’s manager Jane Burns, help us sample some of the more interesting selections and the nuances that w...

With only 10 days left in the year, we’re looking at end of year celebrations and what we’ve accomplished in the past 355 days. To that end, we speak with Congressman Jim McGovern for our weekly mcgoverning just after he visits the area to join in the celebrations of Good Ben Clark of Clarkdale Fruit Farm’ s appointment as Person of the Year, in addition to looking at the year in governance and th...

As the holidays encroach, we have lots to contemplate. That includes the lyrics of the songs sung around this time of year. The Word Nerd, our resident wordster Emily Brewster, senior editor at Merriam-Webster, locates some of the more archaic maxims from the tunes of the season so we can explore the merriment of bygone carols. and it’s in the ways the world is changing. Hip-hop MC and Author Tem...

There’s a little irony in there being so much to do at the end of the year, as if the last day of 2023 itself is a deadline. And some of the celebrations coming are ones that may be unfamiliar to you. Kwanzaa might just be the least understood of the late fall/early winter, year-end holidays, but the Kwanzaa Collective is here to not just teach us of the 7 days themselves, but to encourage the com...

Twas a week before X-mas and all through the show we were getting excited for what’s coming. For some of us that means parties. And when one of your previous guests heads south to get their party on at The White House, you ask them all you can about it so you can live vicariously through their experience. Western New England Professor of Law Jennifer Taub has just come back from 1600 Pennsylvania...

The end of the year brings with it all sorts of celebrations. Some are the kind we make for ourselves. The Holiday Queer BIPOC Makers Market in Holyoke this Saturday, Dec 16th is one such endeavor. At a time when we are actively encouraging folks to think more locally with their spending this giving season, this particular market is shining light on those creators that may not be as illuminated as...

It’s our 200th show! What better way than to celebrate with a live show in an idyllic location preserved in honor of someone who made some of the more iconic holiday illustrations of the 20th Century? So we head southwest to Stockbridge to the Norman Rockwell Museum , where we’re able to get insights to the place’s namesake and his contribution to the evolution of American art with chief curator S...