The Fabulous 413

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...

There’s only 9 days left of February, so it’s time to really double down before we get back to reminding folx that every month is black history month.  And we’ll start just north of W.E.B du Bois’ birthplace at an organization that he co-founded. The NAACP still looms large in black culture and its Berkshires chapter i s being revitalized through a new office to house their archives of local black...

In Amherst, a musical meeting of cultures and landscapes is happening in a project from Sunny Jain . Wild Wild East is an exploration that blends ideas of expansion, cowboy mythos, the immigrant experience, and ritual. It’s a mesmerizing shift from his work in the brass focused Red Baraat, and we speak with the percussionist and composer about the pilgrimage into a more progressive sound.  We also...

It’s another one of those awesome rare live music Tuesdays with local saxophonist and more Mtali Banda, who’s been honing his craft for years in the valley and beyond and will present a concert next weekend at De La Luz in Holyoke. We’ll hear a bit from the musician and teacher himself as we dig into the themes of this latest show, which focus on Black History and Art, and hear from Damany Gordon...

Love is in the air and that love is taking many forms One of which is conservation. The Trustees of Reservations are on a mission to conserve 30% of the Bay State’s natural resources for public use. After their successful acquisition of Beaver Brook Golf Course, even more efforts are on the horizon. We speak with Katie Theoharides, president of the organization about their next initiative, how you...

Thursday continues to steal all of Friday’s thunder and today we have two musical guests making incredible sounds all over the area.  The Iron horse in addition to its recently announced Playing It Forward Campaign is launching a new series anchored by the Deep River Ramblers, a hit list of local musicians. The Happy Valley Bluegrass Church is far more secular than its name implies, but we’ll get...

Valentine’s Day is this Saturday so today we’re talking about love.  What is it? We’ll hear the answer to that question, at least in a lexicographical fashion, when Word Nerd Emily Brewster, senior editor at Merriam-Webster in Springfield defines love for us, and some of the disappointment the public has had with their etymology. Loves comes to town when the Springfield Symphony Orchestra hosts a...

Today we have a trio of badass women, all smashing proverbial ceilings and bringing us closer together in the things they are building.  Ashfield has been the home of a theater company that pushes the boundaries of how acting engages with community and the world for the past 27 years. Double Edge Theater ’s founder Stacy Klein has recently released An Alchemy of Living Culture , a book that outlin...

We’re boldly going forward with new projects The first of those is an effort to check in on the proverbial health of the 7 cities of Western Mass with a brand new segment, Mayor of the Month.  First up is the newly appointed leader of the Massachusetts Mayors Association , Holyoke mayor Joshua Garcia . We talk about the importance of connection to community with his city's very swift evolution int...