ThunderFest 2016
Adams – The downtown winter celebration of ThunderFest will take place on Saturday, March 5. The festivities will begin at noon outdoors at the Adams Visitors Center at 3 Hoosac St. and will feature live music from the Misty Blues Duo and the Rev Tor Band; hot food from Desperado’s, Cliff’s Backyard BBQ, the Olde Forge Tavern, and the Adams Lions Club; local beer and wine from Wandering Star Craft Brewery and Balderdash Cellars; a chowder cook-off; outdoor recreation; and craft vendors. A campfire and children’s activities for kids will also be provided.
The annual Thunderbolt Ski Run, the event around which ThunderFest traditionally centers, will not take place this year due to a lack of snow on Mt. Greylock. Event organizers have announced the addition of two new races to be held on Sunday, March 6. The ThunderTrek 5k snowshoe race will begins at 10 a.m. at Greylock Glen, 155 Gould Rd. The entry fee is $15 but will be waived for those under 18 or over 65. All skill levels are welcome and registration for the race will begin at 9 a.m. The 1 p.m. ThunderGlide cross-country ski race will also open to all ages and skill levels. Also to take place at Greylock Glen, the course is five kilometers long with an option for 10 kilometers. The entry fee is $10 for the 5k and $15 for 10k. Registration for the race will start at 11 a.m.
Participants and spectators for both races are encouraged to use the free shuttles running from Hoosac Street due to the very limited parking available at Greylock Glen. Hot food and beverages and a campfire will be available at Greylock Glen from 11 a.m.
–E.E.
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Fourth annual Berkshire Award
Pittsfield — The Berkshire Museum will present the fourth annual Berkshire Award to Jane Burke, Sandra L. Burton and Don Quinn Kelley, and Lola Jaffe in an award ceremony on Friday, March 4, at 5:30 p.m.
The Berkshire Award recognizes honorees who have made significant contributions to creating, keeping, and promoting artistic, historical, and natural heritage in the Berkshires. Jane Burke is the founder and executive director of the Flying Cloud Institute; Sandra L. Burton and Don Quinn Kelley are community developers and founding steering committee members of the Lift Ev’ry Voice Festival; and Lola Jaffe is the founder of the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center.
The Berkshire Award event will include video presentations on all three honorees followed by cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. For tickets and more information, see the Berkshire Edge calendar or call the Museum at (413) 443.7171 x313.
–E.E.
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Winter Melt dance party at DCSC
Sheffield — Down County Social Club (DCSC) will present ‘Present Present Winter Melt,’ a family-friendly global bass music dance party on Saturday, March 5, at Race Brook Lodge featuring Antibalas’ Amayo, DJ Busquelo, DJ Monk One, and a vegetarian feast.
The event will kick off in the Race Brook Lodge barn at 4 p.m. with Amayo’s Fu-Arkist-Ra, a cosmic Afrobeat ensemble. A festive and eclectic dinner prepared by chef Michael Sherman will take place at 6 p.m. Music will resume upstairs from 7 p.m. – 11 p.m. with DJ Busquelo’s international dance grooves followed by Wax Poetics magazine cofounder DJ Monk One, and closing out with more Afrobeat from Amayo. A children’s lounge will be set up in the barn’s lower level with pillows, blankets, cartoons, and hot chocolate.
Tickets are $30 for the dance party plus dinner and $10 for the dance party only. See the Berkshire Edge calendar for tickets and more information or call Race Brook Lodge at (413) 229-2916.
–E.E.
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MMRHS pops concert
Great Barrington — On Friday, March 4, at 8 p.m., the Monument Mountain Regional High School (MMRHS) Band and Jazz Ensemble, both under the direction of Jeffrey Stevens, will return to the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center to present their 33rd annual pops concert. This year’s concert will feature guest artists Wanda Houston, Robert Kelly, Robert Putnam, and Jay Bradley, who will appear alone and in concert with the MMRHS Jazz Ensemble. The Jazz Ensemble will play the music of Frank Sinatra, Count Basie, Quincy Jones, Cole Porter, Gordon Goodwin, and Tower of Power; the Concert Band will perform works by Aaron Copland, Alfred Reed, Leroy Anderson, and Woody Guthrie.
The concert is part of the bands’ celebration of national Music in Our Schools Month. Tickets are $12 and are available, along with more information, from the Berkshire Edge calendar and the Mahaiwe box office at (413) 528-0100. All proceeds will help support music in the schools.
–E.E.
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Prison symposium at Williams College
Williamstown — Williams College will host a two-day symposium on Wednesday, March 2, and Thursday, March 3, featuring several activists working to abolish the prison industrial complex (PIC). The PIC incarcerates transwomen of color at alarming rates and the symposium will look at the cross-cultural movement to change the system through workshops, discussions, and films. All events are free and open to the public.
The symposium events are listed below.
Wednesday, March 2
4:30 p.m.: Gender and sexuality workshop with Emani Love (Hardy House).
7 p.m.: Panel discussion with CeCe McDonald and Rev. Jason Lydon (Goodrich Hall).
Thursday, March 3
Noon: Lunch discussion with CeCe McDonald, Rev. Jason Lydon, dream hampton, and Emani Love (Jenness House). RSVP here.
7 p.m.: Screening of hampton’s film “Treasure.” A post-film discussion will include hampton, Emani Love, and Aishah Shahidah Simmons (Paresky Auditorium).
CeCe McDonald is a transgendered prison-reform activist who was imprisoned after being assaulted and killing her assailant. “Free CeCe,” a documentary film about her experiences focused on the issue of violence against transwomen of color.
Aishah Shahidah Simmons, the 2015–2016 Sterling Brown Visiting Professor of Africana Studies, is an award-winning African-American feminist and lesbian independent documentary filmmaker, television and radio producer, published writer, international lecturer, associate editor of The Feminist Wire, and activist based in Philadelphia, Pa. She is currently an adjunct faculty member in the Women’s Studies and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies programs at Temple University where she teaches courses that examine the her/histories and contemporary realities of cisgender women and/or LGBTQ people in all of their diversity.
dream hampton is a writer, award-winning filmmaker, and organizer who has written about music, culture, and politics since 1990. Her articles have been published in the Village Voice, Spin, the Detroit News, Harper’s Bazaar, NPR, the Source, Essence, and Ebony. She is a consultant at MomsRising, and a board member for the national civil rights organization Color of Change. hampton serves on the boards of Young Nation, Detroit Summer, and Write A House, all in her hometown of Detroit, Mich.
Emani Love is a Detroit activist and community organizer who works in the field of Transjustice and Healingjustice. She is an outreach worker at the Ruth Ellis Center and oversees the Trans JustUs women’s group, a workshop and bimonthly healing retreat for trans women.
Rev. Jason Lydon is a Unitarian Universalist community minister in Boston, Mass. He founded Black & Pink after a six-month prison sentence and has been working to abolish the prison industrial complex for more than a decade.
For building locations on the Williams campus, consult the online map or call the Office of Communications at (413) 597-4277.
–E.E.
