Hannah Van Sickle

Local couple successfully builds a pair of brick-and-mortar businesses from the ground up by meeting the community where they are.

“The selection committee was invigorated by the depth and originality of the applications,” said Patricia Pin, residency lead and public programs director at The Mount, as she pointed out the scope of this year’s residents, which includes a disability advocate, a Stanford lecturer, and a Signet Society poet.

“[Representing diverse voices] is urgently needed in children's literature,” says Espinoza-Madrigal, who underscores: “As more identities and themes are under siege, it's critical that we speak up—and write.”

“[This book] is about the journey of the Higher Self—first as the student, and then as the teacher—both of which I had to go through myself,” explains Hucknall of the seemingly inverse process that allowed her to pen “Zarathustra’s Journey."

On Saturday, November 11, the nonprofit’s annual fundraising exhibition—showcasing the work of more than a dozen Berkshire artists, including Engel—opens at “The Little Gallery,” located at 137 Front Street, the former studio of the late artist and Housatonic resident Deb Koffman.

"I let my psyche loose and my imagination run wild and what came out is [this show],” says Tom Truss of an incredibly dark comedy that sheds light on life—but mostly not his. “I got tired of creating dances and theatre pieces about my [lived experience].”

Using her eponymous nonprofit as a fundraising platform, Soumya has endeavored to assist her village in meeting goals that run the gamut from supplying critical medical care and basic necessities to securing access to clean water and rebuilding the village of Armed.

In total, about 50 students from Mt. Everett Regional High School, Monument Mountain Regional High School, Pittsfield High School, Wahconah Regional High School, and Housatonic Valley Regional High School rolled up their sleeves and got their hands dirty in a series of workshops in the second annual Women in Agriculture and Conservation conference.

In the process of what he calls “doing the work,” Redd ultimately joined the Diversity Committee at BHS, where his first question proved pivotal (albeit unbeknownst to him at the time) to his future: Why don’t we have a Chief Diversity Officer?

As a first-generation college student whose family’s primary language is Spanish, Escobar found herself breaking down the long list of required information and explaining everything in Spanish in order to ensure she and her parents were on the same page. In keeping with her generous spirit, Escobar turned her attention toward paying it forward.

“The happy chickens, sheep, and cows are putting back valuable nutrients while they eat to their hearts’ content [and] the land is coming alive,” said Iredale as if penning a poem. “We’ll never reach the level of harmony that indigenous Americans did, but we’re going to give it our best shot.”

What are you waiting for? Make a date to pack a picnic, take a drive, and experience for yourself the surprising beauty that abounds—both in making the journey and in reaching the destination—that is Sandisfield, an unexpected treasure along the banks of the Clam River, a verdant landscape just waiting to be uncovered.

The Mastheads is a public arts and humanities project aimed at connecting residents to the literary history of the region, creating a forum for thinking about place and supporting the production of new creative work.

“This was a labor of love where everyone shines in an effort to bring greater awareness to the need for police reform and real justice for all marginalized communities," said Grammy nominee Jarrett Johnson of "No Light Yet," a collaboration whose timing is serendipitous at best.

Perhaps chief among David Gianinni’s talents is that of observation—a skill he employs each day upon rising from sleep at 4 a.m. only to find himself occupying a liminal zone in which anything seems possible.

The effects of a chance meeting have sent reciprocal ripples through their respective lives and the lives of countless others, a profound and ongoing experience about which Boutin will speak at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 26 at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Berkshire Community College.