Sunday, February 16, 2025

News and Ideas Worth Sharing

Bits & Bytes: Lenox Tub Parade; Imani Winds at Saint James Place; ‘Where the Wild Things Are;’ ‘Asian-Americans: No More Perpetual Foreigners;’ gravestone art

Panelists Helen Haerhan Moon, Deepika Shukla, Setsuko Winchester and K. Scott Wong will address what it means to be Asian-American in the U.S.

Lenox Tub Parade

A draft tub at the 2015 Lenox Tub parade. Photo courtesy Colonial Carriage and Driving Society
A draft tub at the 2015 Lenox Tub parade. Photo courtesy Colonial Carriage and Driving Society

Lenox — The Gilded Age will come alive as part of the 250th anniversary celebration of the town of Lenox with the 25th annual Tub Parade on Saturday, Sept. 9, at 1:30 p.m. The Tub Parade showcases the pageantry and beauty of the horses and carriages that played an important role in the Gilded Age.

The carriages will leave from 45 West St. The parade will start at Cliffwood and Main Street and proceed up Main Street to Church and Franklin streets and then around the same route again before returning back to the staging area at 45 West St. There will be donkeys, ponies, miniature horses, horses, coach horses and draft horses of all sizes decorated with flowers. Clearing the parade route for the carriages will be Gunnard and Janice Gudmundson in the 1915 Rolls Royce convertible for the lead carriage driven by Mary Stokes Waller. This year’s parade grand marshal will be Lenox Historical Society president Charles Flint. Colonial Carriage and Driving Society president and Tub Parade organizer Harvey Waller will drive the four Dutch horses put to the yellow Brewster Park drag coach.

–E.E.

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Leaf Peeper Concert Series to present Imani Winds at Saint James Place

Eugenia Zukerman. Photo by Angela Jimenez
Eugenia Zukerman. Photo by Angela Jimenez

Great Barrington — The Clarion Concerts in Columbia County’s Leaf Peeper Concert Series will open its 2017 season at Saturday, Sept. 9, at 5 p.m. at Saint James Place with “Storied Nights,” presented by Imani Winds.

Imani Winds is a Grammy Award-nominated, New York City-based wind quintet featuring flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and French horn. The group will be joined by Leaf Peeper’s music director and flutist Eugenia Zukerman. The program will feature three pieces written by Imani Winds’ members: “Elegy for Innocence, for Bassoon and Piano” by French horn player Jeff Scott; “Portraits of Langston” by flutist Valerie Coleman; and “Canción de Flores,” a world premiere piece also written by Coleman and commissioned especially for the Leaf Peeper series. Also included will be the “Flower Duet” by Delibes.

Tickets are $25–$35 for the general public and free for students with ID. For tickets and more information, see the Berkshire Edge calendar or contact the Leaf Peeper Concert Series at (413) 551-9901 or leafpeeper.clarionconcerts@gmail.com.

–E.E.

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‘Where the Wild Things Are’ to open Sheffield in Celebration

A coyote in the Sheffield night. Photo: Nancy Smith
A coyote in the Sheffield night. Photo: Nancy Smith

Sheffield — To kick off Sheffield in Celebration on Friday, Sept. 8, at 7:30 pm, the Sheffield Historical Society will present conservationist Nancy Smith and naturalist Rene Wendell in a presentation at Dewey Hall titled “Where the Wild Things Are: 26 Trail Cameras in Sheffield.” Smith will show images she has captured using strategically placed trails cameras of wild animals in their natural states. Via the presentation, Smith and Wendell will discuss the hidden lives of Sheffield’s wild animals and further illuminate Sheffield’s rich ecosystems.

For 20 years, Smith worked for Sweet Water Trust conserving wild lands in New England, New York and Quebec. She helped found the Sheffield Land Trust, for which she served as president from 1989 to 1995, and the Northeast Wilderness Trust. Now retired, Smith enjoys exploring and photographing wilderness.

Wendell spent 13 years leading public nature programs and outdoor adventures at Bartholomew’s Cobble in Ashley Falls. He is currently the land steward for the Nature Conservancy where he helps manage thousands of acres of land in western Massachusetts.

The program is free and open to the public and refreshments will be served. For more information, contact the Sheffield Historical Society at (413) 229-2694 or sheffieldhistoricalsociety@gmail.com.

–E.E.

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Pittsfield Human Rights Commission to highlight Asian-American experience

Pittsfield — On Sunday, Sept. 10, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Berkshire Museum, the Pittsfield Human Rights Commission will offer the presentation “Asian-Americans: No More Perpetual Foreigners.”

More laws have been passed in the United States attempting to restrict immigration from Asian countries than from any other part of the world. Panelists Helen Haerhan Moon, Deepika Shukla, Setsuko Winchester and K. Scott Wong will address what it means to be Asian-American in the U.S. via the following questions: how many years and generations must pass before immigrants become “American?” is there a double standard? do immigrants from European countries become accepted and acceptable sooner than immigrants from other parts of the globe?

The presentation is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Drew Herzig at drewherzig@yahoo.com.

–E.E.

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Gravestone art at the Bidwell House Museum

Monterey — On Saturday, Sept. 9, at 10 a.m., historical archaeologist Bob Drinkwater, an expert on New England tombstone carvers, will present “Gravestone Art in Monterey’s Old Cemeteries” at the Bidwell House Museum. The presentation will include a brief history of gravestone art in New England and a tour of Monterey’s historic cemeteries, including Henwood and Old Center. If interest and time permit, Drinkwater will also take participants to the Mount Hunger and Corashire cemeteries.

Drinkwater holds a master’s degree in anthropology from UMass Amherst. For much of the past 40 years, he has been recording, photographing and occasionally reporting on the 18th- and early 19th-century gravestones and stonecutters of western Massachusetts and has also ben researching gravestones of under-represented populations. Drinkwater is a charter member and past president of the Association for Gravestone Studies and has served several terms on its board of trustees. He was the recipient of the 2016 Harriette Merrifield Forbes Award and occasionally offers gravestone studies workshops at Greenfield Community College.

There is a suggested donation of $15 per person for the general public and $10 for Bidwell House Museum members. For tickets and more information, contact the Bidwell House Museum at (413) 528-6888 or bidwellhouse@gmail.com.

–E.E.

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