The Fabulous 413

Today, we go onscreen in Deerfield where a new exhibit looks at the way the Asparagus Valley has been captured on film and tv. Pioneer Valley Picture Show is a wide sweeping exploration of the people, places, and screenplays that are connected to the towns and cities of the 413, from actors to costume designers, writers and directors, the Memorial Hall Museum is looking at the many ways Western Ma...

We’re learning more about the arts and culture of a diaspora at Springfield Museums for instance, where this Friday sees the third Latino Arts Festival . Featuring an exhibit on loan from the Museo de Ponce that itself delves into the sense of place and surrealism in Latin America, music, dance and more and we’ll chat with Museum director of Education Larissa Murray about the occasion We’ll also f...

It’s birthday time because one of the farms in the area is celebrating its time in agro-tourism with four acres of festivities. Mike’s Maze in Sunderland is celebrating its 25th year with its 26th maize labyrinth, so we head there to take in this year’s attraction and hear about it’s history. We’ll learn about the maze’s origins with the eponymous Mike  Wissemann  and artist Will Sillin who design...

20 years ago today the nation watched as Hurricane Katrina broke the levees and lay feet of water and devastation on the wards of New Orleans, destroying infrastructure, communities, and lives.  And today on the Fab 413, we’ll speak with one person displaced by the hurricane happened to land in Ashfield and make themselves a little ubiquitous. Nan Parati has been making signs for businesses, event...

Healthcare is a fraught issue in the US let alone the region. And there’s a local organization that’s been providing care for a wide variety of avenues to some of the most vulnerable populations across the 4 counties. Tapestry Health has been a force in the 413 for 50 years and has just undergone a few leadership changes. We speak their new Chair of the Board Brad Riley about their current service...

Every year, the congressman for the 2nd congressional district comes to to area for a whirlwind meeting with farmers, agricultural advocates, and other legislators, and members of his staff at various farms across his district.  We tag along with U.S. Representative Jim McGovern at the second stop of his 15 location, 2 day Farm Tour up in Ashfield at Foxtrot Farm  and get to see firsthand  how the...

We’re trying our best to get around, and a recent survey of folx in the area show that they’re having problems with that too.  The People and Transportation Project report looks at the ways that folx in the 4 counties are and aren’t getting around, and the hardships they face getting from point A to Point which can have bigger repercussions in many other facets of daily life. We head next door to...

We have a cure for your Mondays. It’s music! Music is the cure! And a new venue that we just saw last month is getting ready to launch right into a new concert series. The Hope Center for the Arts in Springfield is reviving its days as the City Center and is announcing its inaugural 25/26 Season of performances, and we’ll chat with Isaac Eddy, Lorenzo Gaines, and Kyle Homestead about the line-up....

With Arts funding being cut everywhere, the places that are finding it in their hearts and wallets to support the creative communities around them are even more important. And today we’ll talk with Zoë Fieldman of CitySpace about their efforts to do just that. The Pay It Forward Grant recipients have just been announced, and we’ll speak with them about the 10 folx bringing their work to the Eastha...

 Metal, wood, fire, a fire lizard, and whales! Sort of.  The salamander, which is often translated to fire lizard is the squirmy looking influence behind many congressional districts across the country and gerrymandering looks like it is about to become all the rage for both Republicans and Democrats. And it just so happens that one of the nation’s experts in the history of gerrymandering lives ri...

 Folk and Americana musicians are all headed for the woods as the Arcadia Folk Festival hits year seven as a plethora of artists over two days headed to North and Easthampton from Red Baraat to Josh Ritter, and more And to talk with us about the sanctuary that will soon be filled with more than the sounds of songbirds is director of Connecticut River Valley Wildlife Sanctuaries for Mass Audubon Jo...

We’re continuing to highlight local traditions, and here at the very height of the harvest season, for Franklin County, that means the Harvest Supper which is celebrating it’s 20th year this weekend. We’ll chat with Stone Soup Cafe’s Kirsten Levitt, who helms the affair to chat about it’s origins with Juanita Nelson, the important place the event has in the community and the Cafe’s calendars, and...

Look who’s back from vacation! (It’s us!)  And look at who else is about to have their vacation end! Your Kids!  But going back to fun arts programming can take some of the sting off of that, and there’s a summer send off that helps to make sure those programs happen while also bringing the local music community together.  Transformance 35 happens tomorrow, with a new list of covers being performe...

It feels only right considering how much music we’ve filled this week with, that we go out with More music.  So we’ll revisit the celebrations of our compatriots in community radio arms for Live Music Friday. Kalliope Jones began as a group of IMA students, but has grown a lot over the past decade and they’ll visit the studios before you can catch them at the Valley Free Radio Birthday Party And o...

If you’re listening to us, you probably already believe in the power of community radio And today on the Fabulous 413, we’ll honor another station that’s rooted in the Asparagus Valley and is celebrating a milestone this weekend. Valley Free Radio began broadcasting 20 years ago and will celebrate this weekend with a birthday party, and we’ll speak with Board Members Betsy Lancto and Ed Malachowsk...

Wow there’s a lot of music going on in western Mass, and we can’t get enough so we’ll tell you about another festival happening this weekend in Florence Etchings is the project of the area’s own ECCE Ensemble , who were also eager to get their ears on new work by composers of all walks. And we’ll talk with Cassandra Holden of Bombyx Center for Arts & Equity , and festival and ensemble founder...

85 years ago Serge Koussevitzky started a tradition at the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s home away from home on the Lenox-Stockbridge line, that has become a herald of the Summer for music lovers everywhere.  Tanglewood on Parade happens today, and though it began as the  “Allied Relief Fund Benefit,” it’s now a fundraiser for all of the learning that is done at the BSO’s summer home, bringing activ...

We're focusing on the amazing 01002 today. (That is the zip code for the People’s Republic of Amherst) Amherst has a lot going on. We’ll take a walk in Wildwood Cemetery where former Amherst resident, artist Matt Mitchell, has a brand new sculpture about to be unveiled. Along with cemetery director Rebebba Fricke and groundskeeper Silas Ball we talk with all three about bringing sculptures to surr...

We’re learning history through our bodies, and arts and culture everywhere.  The twelfth annual Pocumtuck Homelands Festival happens this weekend in Great Falls, honoring the many peoples who have stewarded and called these lands home for millennia with dance, song, vendors who are masters of their craft and more. We’ll chat with Kitty Hendrick Miller of the Mashpee-Wampanoag peoples , about the p...

We’ve got a bunch of current issues we’re tackling, some on stage, some in the houses of law.  Two professors at Bard Microcollege in Holyoke are producing a theatrical work that dovetails with their teachings tidily. BELLY is a work that condenses a decade of research on Black motherhood, and reproductive autonomy into an experience of music, dance, and spoken word, while stretching those finding...

We’re reminding you that Africa is not a single country, so stop treating it like that. In fact there’s an opportunity coming up for you to learn more about and interact with the culture of several of the nations that make up the continent in Springfield.  The African Community Festival happens August 9 celebrating people of the African diaspora and their many cultures. We’ll speak with organizers...

This weekend, visual art isn’t the only type of art that you can see in the halls and galleries at Mass MoCA , as a 40 year musical collective known for expanding the definition of ensemble, vocal, and solo music commandeers the museum to push those boundaries in sound further.  Today on the Fabulous 413, we head to North Adams, to get a sneak peek at Bang on a Can’s Loud Weekend , where the fello...

Over the course of this show, we’ve made many mentions of how important local agriculture is, and how crucial local involvement with that agriculture is. One of the best ways we as consumers can make that happen is through the implementation of CSAs: Community Supported Agriculture and the Farm Share model.  So today we visit a farm in Great Barrington that was one of the first to start what you g...

Electronic Music has come a long long way since the first synthesizers and theremins of the early 20th Century, and today we’ll get into the wide array of sounds this style of music includes at a festival being thrown this weekend at The Shea Theater.  Extension Cords II happens this Saturday bringing an eclectic mix of 6 musicians, each with their own flavor of sound to the stage. We’ll speak wit...

Today on the Fab 413, there’s a festival coming up in the Berkshires that will encourage the next generation of filmmakers to pick up a camera and shoot the movies they've imagined. In Great Barrington, Trifest is currently open for submissions of work from filmmakers 25 and under of all lengths and all topics and all film styles. We chat with Salem Rabley of Triplex Cinema about the films that ha...