Pittsfield’s 10×10 Upstreet Arts Festival pairs with Berkshires Jazz, Jacob’s Pillow for events
PITTSFIELD — Upcoming events in this year’s mostly virtual City of Pittsfield 10×10 Upstreet Arts Festival will include a livestreamed jazz concert by pianist Matt DeChamplain, courtesy of Berkshires Jazz, and an online dance party co-sponsored by Jacob’s Pillow.
Berkshires Jazz will present a free program by Matt DeChamplain on Saturday, Feb. 20, at 7:30 p.m. DeChamplain will perform the jazz stylings of 10 different pianists, plus an encore with his wife, vocalist Atla DeChamplain. Selections will range from rag to bop to modern. The program, developed for this 10×10 event, will represent the different eras of jazz piano and draw from the works of James P. Johnson, Art Tatum, Thelonious Monk, Barry Harris, Bud Powell, Mary Lou Williams, Oscar Peterson, Erroll Garner, Herbie Hancock, and McCoy Tyner. Possible encores may include songs made popular by Blossom Dearie and Nat “King” Cole.
The performance can be viewed at www.PittsfieldTV.org, via the Berkshires Jazz Facebook page, and on PCTV channel 1302.
On Saturday, Feb. 20 at 8 p.m., Jacob’s Pillow will host DANCE ON!, a virtual community dance party via Zoom. The event is free, but all donations will be equally shared between Berkshire Immigrant Center and Volunteers in Medicine in recognition of their work providing direct, essential services to Berkshire County during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Choreographer Christal Brown will host and New York-based DJ DP One will perform a live set. Party-goers can use the chat function in Zoom to connect with others, and anyone can volunteer to be featured on screen — or simply watch, listen, and enjoy.
—A.K.
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Berkshire Grown winter farmers market scheduled for Saturday
GREAT BARRINGTON — Berkshire Grown’s monthly winter famers market will be held at Eisner Camp on Saturday, Feb. 20 from 10 a.m.–2 p.m. Local products for sale include winter squash, greens, root crops, apples, meats, cheeses, honey, and maple syrup, as well as baked goods, jams, ferments, and cider.
You may shop the market in advance, online, through WhatsGood. Orders may be placed Monday through Thursday and picked up from vendors at Camp Eisner during market hours. Curbside pickup may be arranged in advance by contacting Berkshire Grown at 413-528-0041.
—A.K.
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Bidwell House Museum presents Cultivating Memorial Geographies and Collective Memories
MONTEREY — On Wednesday, Feb. 24 at 7 p.m., join the Museum for the last of three Zoom lectures in the off-season series Hidden in Plain Sight: Native Peoples and the Struggle to Recover Their History in New England.
Though the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohicans were forced to leave their homelands in 1783, they have never relinquished their ties to the Mahicannituck River Valley and have continued to return to this region over the last 238 years. In the talk Cultivating Memorial Geographies and Collective Memories, Rose Miron will discuss the heritage tourism trips organized by the tribe’s Historical Committee in the late 20th century, which brought busloads of tribal citizens back to the Northeast to learn about Mohican history. The trips allowed tribal citizens to recreate the geographies in which their ancestors lived and cultivate new collective memories that strengthened a shared sense of tribal history, laying the foundation for future interventions in regional museums and other public history sites.
Rose Miron is the director of the D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies at the Newberry Library in Chicago.
—A.K.
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Great Barrington Police Department partners with Rural Recovery Resources
GREAT BARRINGTON — Chief Paul Storti recently announced the Great Barrington Police Department has partnered with Rural Recovery Resources, under program manager Gary Pratt, to provide substance abuse services through the utilization of recovery coaches. Recovery coaching is a form of strengths-based support for people with addictions or in recovery from alcohol, other drugs, codependency, or other addictive behaviors. They work with people who have active addictions, as well as those already in recovery.
Chief Storti said, “This is a great addition to our current co-responder program and another way that we are trying to help our community when in need.”
The Co-Responder Program, launched in June of 2019, was designed to increase earlier identification and intervention for citizens with mental illness who have contact with law enforcement. The goal is to decrease the likelihood that those individuals will be arrested and enter the criminal justice system because of behaviors related to their mental illness. A clinician assists people in crisis, outlines services available to those in need, and completes follow-up visits. Recovery coaches will be able to do the same for those struggling with substance misuse.
Program Manager Gary Pratt said, “Rural Recovery Resources is excited to enter into a partnership with the Great Barrington Police Department in an effort to truly get people the help they need. We’re grateful to Chief Storti and his recognition that addiction is a treatable condition and that progressive police policy is good for the individual and community as a whole.”
If you or someone you know needs help, reach out to The Great Barrington Police Department and you will be connected to one of its partners who specialize in these services.
—A.K.
