TurnPark Art Space presents ‘Reading Frederick Douglass Together’ with Mount Holyoke College Assistant Professor D. Caleb Smith
West Stockbridge— On Friday, July 4th at 11 a.m., TurnPark Art Space presents “Reading Frederick Douglass Together” with Mount Holyoke College Assistant Professor D. Caleb Smith.
Dr. Smith will introduce and provide historical context to Frederick Douglass’s “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July” before a public reading of the speech in the TurnPark Amphitheater. Afterwards, Dr. Smith will facilitate a discussion of the speech, exploring its main themes and contemporary relevance.
A program of Mass Humanities, “Reading Frederick Douglass Together” is being presented at more than 50 sites across Massachusetts in partnership with the Du Bois Freedom Center, the West Stockbridge Historical Society, and American Composer and West Stockbridge resident Eric Shimelonis. The event will also include period-specific music curated by Shimelonis and a community art project.
D. Caleb Smith is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History and an affiliate of the Critical Race and Political Economy Department at Mount Holyoke College. Dr. Smith’s research explores the intersections of African American, civil rights, labor, and legal history. His scholarship appears in the American Journal of Legal History, Black Educology Mixtape Journal, Labor History, and Left History. Dr. Smith’s research has been supported by the American Society for Legal History, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South, and the New Orleans African American Museum.
The event is on Friday, July 4th at 11 a.m., TurnPark Art Space, located at 2 Moscow Road in West Stockbridge. It is free and open to the public. Tickets and more information can be found online.
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Jacob’s Pillow presents Los Angeles-based BODYTRAFFIC
Becket— From July 2nd through July 6th, Jacob’s Pillow presents BODYTRAFFIC.
Founded in 2007, BODYTRAFFIC tours the country and the globe spreading the joy and positive spirit of its Los Angeles home. With a compelling style that reflects the “invention, attitude, and urban edge” of its home city (Boston Globe), BODYTRAFFIC returns to the Pillow with a program that dives into the power of memory sparked by unexpected reminders. Whether it’s a painting, song, or sensation, the associations we make with the world around us forge lasting connections that provoke deep feelings of nostalgia.
BODYTRAFFIC will perform a program featuring “Blue Until June,” set to the songs of Etta James by their new Creative Partner Trey McIntyre, “Flyland,” created by David Middendorp and produced by Another Kind of Blue, Juel D. Lane’s “Incense Burning on a Saturday Morning: The Maestro,” honoring the life and work of painter Ernie Barnes; and “I Forgot the Start,” created by Matthew Neenan, “one of America’s best dance poets” (The New York Times.)
The performances run from July 2nd through July 6th at the Ted Shawn Theatre at Jacob’s Pillow, located at 358 George Carter Road in Becket. There will be an all-levels joyful dance workshop on Sunday, July 6th at 10 a.m. Tickets and more information can be found online.
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Boston Symphony Orchestra presents an all-Rachmaninoff program with pianist Daniil Trifonov at Tanglewood
Lenox— On Saturday, July 5th at 8 p.m., Boston Symphony Orchestra presents an all-Rachmaninoff program with Grammy Award-winning pianist Daniil Trifonov at Tanglewood.
The program includes Rachmaninoff’s “Third Piano Concerto” which pianist consider the ultimate challenge, requiring herculean, technical challenging playing non-stop for 45 minutes, scaring off many seasoned virtuosi. The program also includes Rachmaninoff’s heart-melting “Symphonic Dances.”
Grammy Award-winning pianist Daniil Trifonov is a solo artist, champion of the concerto repertoire, chamber and vocal collaborator, and composer. Combining consummate technique with rare sensitivity and depth, his performances are a perpetual source of wonder to audiences and critics alike. In addition to winning a Grammy Award, Trifonov is the recipient of numerous Grammy Award nominations, a medal winner at three of the music world’s most prestigious competitions including Third Prize in Warsaw’s Chopin Competition, First Prize in Tel Aviv’s Rubinstein Competition, and both First Prize and Grand Prix in Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Competition. He won BBC Music’s 2019 Concerto Recording of the Year, Opus Klassik’s Instrumentalist of the Year, Gramophone’s 2016 Artist of the Year, and Musical America’s 2019 Artist of the Year. In 2021, he was made a “Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” by the French government.
The concert is on Saturday, July 5th at 8 p.m. at the Koussevitzky Music Shed at Tanglewood, located at 297 West Street in Lenox. Tickets and more information can be found online.
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Taconic Music presents guest flutist Matthew Lee and pianist Gili Melamed-Lev
Manchester, Vt.— On Saturday, July 5th at 7:30 p.m., Taconic Music presents guest flutist Matthew Lee and pianist Gili Melamed-Lev for a program that ranges in tone from the quintessentially French sounds of Jacques Ibert, to a Rachmaninov elegy, to a late 20th century Rutter piece that harkens back to Bach.
Written not long after the end of World War II, “Deux Interludes” comes from Ibert’s music for the play “Le Burlador,” a feminist take on the iconic Don Juan story. Rachmaninov’s early “Trio élégiaque No. 1” was inspired by Tchaikovsky, the composer’s mentor. Written in 1979 for a concert featuring Bach’s fifth Brandenburg concerto, “Suite Antique” was composed by John Rutter to complement the piece’s style and instrumentation, and has since become one of the English composer’s most popular orchestral works.
The concert is on Saturday, July 5th at 7:30 p.m. at the Riley Center for the Arts at Burr and Burton Academy, located at 57 Seminary Avenue in Manchester, Vt. The concert will also be live-streamed online. There will be a pre-concert reception at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free for students snd children. Tickets and more information can be found online.
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Fisher Center presents Adrienne Truscott’s ’24-Minute Misinterpretation of Song, Time, and Jeenyus’
Annandale-On-Hudson— On Saturday, July 5th at 8 p.m., the Fisher Center presents Adrienne Truscott’s “24-Minute Misinterpretation of Song, Time, and Jeenyus.”
Form-busting performance artist Adrienne Truscott returns to the Spiegeltent as the one and lonely Païge Trnr, the forgotten cabaret legend and figment of her own imagination. Joined by an all-lady band (musical director Viva DeConcini on guitar, Brittany Anjou on keys, and Bernice “Boom Boom” Brooks on drums,) Païge is here to misinterpret and pervert some of the best and worst songs ever written. Païge will bring you to your feet (or knees) whether you like it or not, and whether she has autonomy over her body and her cocktails or not. Come! It’ll be so much pun.
The performance is on Saturday, July 5th at 8 p.m. at the Spiegeltent at the Fisher Center, located at 60 Manor Avenue in Annandale-On-Hudson. Tickets and more information can be found online.
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Olga Dunn Dance Co. and Stockbridge Library present free contemporary dance performance
Stockbridge— On Saturday, July 5th at 5 p.m., the Olga Dunn Dance Company and Stockbridge Library present a free contemporary dance performance.
The program features nine dance pieces including premieres, excerpts, previews, and audience favorites. The music includes contemporary songs and Bach with live drumming.
The free performance is on Saturday, July 5th at 5 p.m. on the lawn of the Stockbridge Library, located at 46 Main Street in Stockbridge. More information can be found online.
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Guild of Berkshire Artists presents ‘Water, Water Everywhere,’ the work of Bruce Panock, Pat Hogan, Peggy Reeves, Marilyn Orner, and Moira O’Grady at Art on Main Gallery
West Stockbridge— From July 3rd through July 27th, the Guild of Berkshire Artists presents “Water, Water Everywhere” at Art on Main Gallery.
“Water, Water Everywhere” is a varied art exhibit with oils, encaustic, photographs, cyanotype and ceramics by five artists: Bruce Panock, Pat Hogan, Peggy Reeves, Marilyn Orner, and Moira O’Grady.
The exhibit will be on view from July 3rd through July 27th at Art on Main Gallery, located at 38 Main Street in West Stockbridge. There will be an opening reception on Saturday, July 5th from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. More information can be found online.
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Mass Audubon presents nature-inspired Tai Chi with Mary Hannah Parkman at Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary
Lenox— On Saturdays, July 5th through the 26th from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m., Mass Audubon presents nature-inspired Tai Chi with Mary Hannah Parkman at the Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary.
Unwind your mind, refresh your energy, and step into a new level of calm with a guided Tai Chi flow and forest bathing experience. Feel inspired by the unique ecosystems around you reflected in poetic Tai Chi movements like “Looking at the Lotus Flower in a Clear Pond” and “Great Bird Spreads its Wings.”
Mary Hannah Parkman, is a certified Tai Chi Instructor and Yoga Teacher, drawn to both by the nature-inspired movements and the dance between grace and strength. After practicing Tai Chi and Qi Gong for 10 years, she earned her first Tai Chi certification in 2023. When Mary Hannah teaches Tai Chi, she draws on over a decade of experience as a mind-body movement instructor.
The sessions runs on Saturdays, July 5th through the 26th from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. at the Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary, located at 472 West Mountain Road in Lenox. This is an adult program that is open to all experience levels. Registration and more information can be found online.
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Otis Library & Country Fair
Otis— On Saturday, July 5th from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., the annual Otis Library and Country Fair will return to the Town Hall Green.
There will be craft booths, children’s activities, the Copsicle truck, a book and puzzle sale, jewelry, Tony’s Italian food, a bake sale, raffles, and more to raise money for library programs and needs.
The fair is on Saturday, July 5th from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Town Hall Green, located in the center of Otis at Routes 8 and 23.
