The Fabulous 413

Yesterday, we learned the news of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Tracy Kidder ’s passing. Today we revisit some of our conversation with the Williamsburg author after publishing his book, “ Rough Sleepers .” And, we are joined by Salar Nader , protege of Zakir Hussain, as he brings the tabla to the studio for the first time for Live Music Thursday.  We hear a preview of his contempor...

Poetry and politics cross paths in Montague this Sunday with a benefit to support our immigrant neighbors. We hear the debut of a brand new poem, inspired by an immigrant rights activist born in Montague, by National Book Award winner and UMass Professor Martín Espada .  State Senator Jo Comerford from the Hampshire, Franklin and Worcester districts, who will also be at the event in Montague this...

Spring is trying real hard to spring. Thus, we will do our part to gently nudge it along as we visit a small hilltop in Montague where Jo Rosen at Meadowhawk Farm is embracing her role as a seed steward and working towards seed sovereignty. Plus she'll give some insights to what you can be doing right now at the end of March to get your own seeds ready for your own garden. And the vernal times are...

We get a chance to sit with an incredibly gifted, lauded professor and author who is making an appearance in Northampton. Jesmyn Ward is a professor at Tulane University , a MacArthur Grant recipient, has won the library of congress prize for fiction, is the only black person or woman to win the national Book award twice, and all this from the acclaim of 4 novels, and 3 works of non-fiction.   Alt...

 We talk with one of the more important health organizations in the area. Tapestry Health provides care, information, and support for all four counties through an incredible network of programming including WIC, Harm reduction, Sexual and reproductive health, and much much more. We speak with some of their leadership team: CEO Mavis Nimoh and directors Lakayla Harris and Pedro Alvarez about the ma...

Right here in Springfield, the Community Music School is hosting a festival on Saturday afternoon, perfect for kids and their parents who often have to choose sleep over late night concerts. The Platform Festival is bringing 8 performances, crafting activities, Girl Scout cookies and more all together at the Robyn Newhouse Hall, and we’ll speak with some of the folx involved with both the event an...

Today is full of lofty aspirations, including a farm putting its principles into practice to create better food ways for all of us. Meadowsweet Farm is a Real Organic livestock endeavor in Hawley that is keeping community in milk and meat, and showcasing quite a lot of what the area is producing in their remarkably stocked farm store. We meet Kyra and Gus Tafel, who shifted their location from New...

 It is the greenest of days; originally celebrating a saint driving out proverbial snakes, that has become a hallmark of the Irish-American community  So for this St. Patrick’s Day, we’ll chat with someone who spent time there being that connection between communities. After his tenure as congressman for the 4th district, Joe Kennedy III became special envoy to Northern Ireland during the Biden ad...

Today explores things in smaller sizes, like tiny pithy songs about the quirky nonsense of our lives. The Dream Eaters are a Brooklyn based band whose catchy pop nuggets have striking video and dance components. What started as a quote unquote serious project intended for YouTube has grown to something with a trajectory all its own and we speak with Elizabeth LeBaron and Jake Zavracky about their...

The culmination of Award season is happening this Sunday, so to get warmed up for all of the Academy’s rewards, we’ll talk with someone who has been portrayed in an Oscar winner. Walter Robinson was leading the Spotlight Team of investigative reporters at the Boston Globe in 2002 when they broke the news of decades of sexual abuse among the clergy in the Metro Boston area . We speak with him about...

In two weeks the city of Northampton will be flushed with sounds from all over the roots, traditional, and Americana diaspora. The 12th Back Porch Festival returns with a stellar lineup of 60 artists and musicians across a bevvy of 10 venues. We chat with founder, organizer, and host of the Back Porch Radio Show Jim Olsen about some of the highlights you can see all over the city, and the new ways...

We make our second stop with our next Mayor of the Month in Whoville, which is to say Easthampton and the newly elected Salem Derby.  Though he’s been in the office since last July it was only made official with this past election. We talk with him about the exit of his opponent Lindsay Sekula who had been working in the office, the first wave of issues he’s preparing to face and his first propose...

Today we put our efforts where our segments have been by heading up to the last of the 978 W. Mass towns we hadn’t visited yet and lend our efforts to the Morning chores at Hettie Belle Farm in Warwick. The farm is the other home of CISA executive director Jennifer Core , who shows us the ins and outs of caring for their many chickens, cattle, and copious amounts of sheep many of whom have just gi...

In Northampton this weekend, you have a chance to learn and plant something a little different. Grow Food Northampton hosts its Annual Seed Share : a swap full of donations from local farms, businesses, and individuals, as well as many grown on the Grow Food Northampton Community Farm. We speak with co-executive director Alisa Klein about the event, and bringing the community together through work...

Her excellency the governor of the commonwealth of Massachusetts Maura Healey stops by the studio ahead of a visit to the Springfield Regional Chamber of Commerce. As she is up for re-election there’s a number of issues coming to the fore that we are looking for her take on including the budget that’ll be reviewed next week, ICE activity, her task force on hunger, Rural transportation and educatio...

Today we're centered on construction and destruction.  In the creation end, the Jones Library is in the middle of its massive restoration project and is spotting an end point on the horizon. So we head out to Amherst to see how things are going as the building keeps its historic facade and gets updated to the 21st century. Decked out in hard hats and safety gear, we get a glimpse at some of the ch...

We're encouraging you to go out and sing. Tim Eriksen, musical bon-vivant and renaissance performer, Amherst College professor of ethnomusicology, frequent collaborator with a wide swath of artists, founder of Cordelia’s Dad and most importantly this weekend on March 7 & 8, Chair of the Western Mass Sacred Harp Convention taking place in Florence at Bombyx. But in addition to teaching the next...

We’re looking at the past to see its influence on the present in a new book. The Judgment of Gender: How Women are Centered and Silenced in Pop Culture from UMass professor Allison Butler comes out on International Women’s Day, March 8th, and we chat with the author about what she discovered, and changes we all can make to shift things for the better.  Towards the future, March means it’s almost t...

Today on the Fabulous 413, we head to Greenfield to see an incredible relic that city is housing. Turns out it is in possession of a 160 year old stagecoach, which itself is at the root of some mystery. We meet with city council and historical society member Sarah Bolduc to see the sight for ourselves, hear some of the history they’ve been able to unravel about the vehicle and how you can help rev...

The kids of today are having a chance to interact and learn from the people who have been on this continent for millenia. This Sunday, March 1st, the Nolumbeka Project hosts “Sharing Mohican Knowledge and Presence in the Berkshires” with Shawn Stevens and Wanonah Kosbab connecting us with the peoples of the Swansea Munson Mohican peoples who were forcibly removed from this area. We’ll chat with th...

Maple has broken like the first dawning, and the commonwealth celebrates next weekend with Massachusetts Maple Weekend.  And celebrate we shall, by heading to the hilltowns to meet some of the folx that are being recognized not just locally, but internationally for the way they handle sap. Boyden Bros Maple in Conway has been sugaring for 4 generations, and it’s current stewards are utilizing meth...

Older practices are making their ways in to new routines and creations. In music that means bringing the roots of black sound into the times of now, which Corey Harris has been doing for decades. The MacArthur Grant recipient has been writing and performing the blues, reggae and more sounds of the afro-diaspora since 1990, and with 19 albums under his belt is bringing all he’s learned to a residen...

In Easthampton, we head to Eastworks where at 50 Arrow Gallery a new exhibit shows the not so hidden lives of a people often relegated to afterthought. A Time, A Place, Our Gaze: Re-framing the Subaltern looks at the black communities of New Brunswick, and shows through photos a glimpse of their daily lives in a way that is often overlooked in favor of sensationalism. We speak with Slavery North I...

We’ll visit the Berkshire Athenaeum, Pittsfield’s Public Library, and learn about how they are offering more than books with the inclusion of a brand new on-site social worker. We’ll meet library director Alex Reczkowski, adult services and programming librarian Caroline Villarreal, and the brand-new social worker Gabriela Leon to hear how they are keeping community care in steady circulation with...

This Saturday in Springfield at the Hope Center, a multimedia presentation examines the violent history of this country and seeks to repair some of its harm through congregation and art. Ashes to Ashes is both the name of a memorial art work seeking to lay to honor 4000 people whose lives were taken by lynching, and a documentary that parallels it with the life of artist Winfred Rembert, who survi...