Thursday, May 22, 2025

News and Ideas Worth Sharing

BITS & BYTES: Mail-in ballot applications available; MASS MoCA announces fall events; Jewish Federation concert; AugustFest at Hunt Library

MASS MoCA has announced its new Fall 2022 programming. A sculptural installation inspired by roller coasters, Brake Run Helix by EJ Hill, is among the featured exhibitions.

Vote-by-mail applications for September 6 Primary Election now available 

Great Barrington — Registered voters who wish to vote by mail in the September 6 state primary election have until August 29 at 5 p.m. to return their vote-by-mail application to the Town Clerk’s office.

The state sends vote-by-mail applications to Massachusetts voters 45 days before Election Day, with a prepaid return envelope. The application can also be found online here.

The same process applies to absentee voters unable to vote in person.

Vote-by-mail ballots can be returned in the mail, dropped off in person at Town hall, or delivered to the Town Clerk’s drop box outside of town hall no later than Election Day.

The deadline for unregistered residents to vote in the September 6 primary is Saturday, August 27, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Registration can take place at Town Hall that day or online.

In person early voting also begins Saturday, August 27 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Town Hall, and continues the following week, August 29 through September 2, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Mail-in ballots for the primary election must be received by 8 p.m. on September 6.

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MASS MoCA announces Fall 2022 programming; tickets on sale today

North Adams — MASS MoCA has announced its new Fall 2022 programming. A sculptural installation inspired by roller coasters, Brake Run Helix by EJ Hill, is among the featured exhibitions.

Ticketed events go on sale to MASS MoCA members beginning Wednesday, August 17, at 12 p.m. General tickets go on sale beginning Thursday, August 18, at 12 p.m. 

MASS MoCA is open Wednesdays–Mondays, 10 a.m.–6 p.m. through October 10; Wednesdays–Mondays, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. beginning October 12. Timed entry reservations are encouraged.

EXHIBITIONS

EJ Hill: Brake Run Helix | On view beginning October 29

At the heart of Brake Run Helix is a rideable sculptural roller coaster. Filling MASS MoCA’s famed 100-yard-long Building 5 gallery, and incorporating paintings, a stage for performances, and freestanding sculptures inspired by the form and function of roller coasters, the exhibition is EJ Hill’s first solo museum exhibition and will be his largest installation to date. Hill’s practice focuses on experiences that intermingle public struggle, endurance, trauma, and joy. In the United States, amusement parks were contested sites throughout Jim Crow-era desegregation efforts for equitable access to pleasure, leisure, and recreation. For Hill, roller coasters are public monuments to the possibility of attaining joy—which, as he notes, is “a critical component of social equity.”

Jason Moran: Black Stars: Writing in the Dark | On view beginning December 17

Visual artist, composer, and musician Jason Moran has said of his artworks, “These pieces emerge from my performance practice, my body in relationship to the piano and to bodies in the audience.” Moran’s exhibition Black Stars: Writing in the Dark, on view in MASS MoCA’s Robert W. Wilson Building 6 beginning December 17, 2022, delves into his interest in the embodied experience of live music, and in the residues and memories that music-making leaves behind.

Installation view Jason Moran: The Sound Will Tell You, Luhring Augustine Tribeca, New York (January 16 – February 27, 2021).
© Jason Moran; Courtesy of the artist and Luhring Augustine, New York.
Photo: Farzad Owran

EVENTS

Jack Ferver: Is Global Warming Camp? and other forms of theatrical distance for the end of the world | September 8-10 at 8 p.m.

Writer, choreographer, and director Jack Ferver premieres their first full-length work in three years, Is Global Warming Camp? and other forms of theatrical distance for the end of the world.  Inhabiting “the queer”—what they describe as someone who is told by society that their life isn’t natural and doesn’t exist, and therefore is supernatural and has chosen not to exist—Ferver weaponizes this vantage point to view and hold our overwhelming global failures with cold journalism to shaky intimacy. 

Open Studios at MASS MoCA | October 6 & November 10, 5-7 p.m.

Experience the work of Assets for Artists’ current artists-in-residence at MASS MoCA. Open Studios will take place from 5 to 7 p.m. in Building 13 and Building 34. Learn more about each artist cohort on the Assets for Artists website: https://www.assetsforartists.org/.

Mija: Screening with Q&A and Performance | October 8 at 8 p.m.

“Immersive [and] deeply empathetic” (The New York Times), the new documentary, Mija, chronicles the emotional and complex stories of Doris Anahi Muñoz and Jacks Haupt, the daughters of undocumented immigrants from Mexico, navigating their careers in the music industry. The screening will be followed by a Q&A and performance with Doris Anahi Muñoz.

Still from the film Mija. Courtesy of the artist.

Shamel Pitts | TRIBE: Touch of RED | October 21 & 22 at 8 p.m.

Created by the visionary arts collective TRIBE, which is led by artistic director and choreographer Shamel Pitts, Touch of RED has its world premiere at MASS MoCA this fall. Reimaging the boxing ring from a space of duels to one of duets, in Touch of RED energy builds not out of aggression or combat but through an electrifying effeminacy that heals.

Member Preview Reception: EJ Hill | October 28, 6-9 p.m.

Enjoy a night of complimentary hors d’oeuvres and drinks—while being among the first to view MASS MoCA’s newest exhibition.

MASS MoCA 2022 Gala | October 29 at 6 p.m. 

In 2022 MASS MoCA’s annual gala moves to our home city of North Adams, Massachusetts. Join us at MASS MoCA for an evening of cocktails, dinner, and a lively auction in support of the museum’s mission.

Soccer Mommy with Lightning Bug | November 5 at 8 p.m.

Sophie Allison, a.k.a. Soccer Mommy, makes pop-inflected indie rock with “one ear on the sounds of the early 2000s and the other warped toward the future” (NPR).

Curatorial Roundtable: Rose B. Simpson in New England | November 9, 6 p.m.

Marking the presentation of Rose B. Simpson’s artwork at multiple New England venues, this roundtable brings together curators who have brought the artist’s sculpture to the region.

Taylor Mac in Conversation & Song | November 19 at 8 p.m.

The inimitable theater artist returns to MASS MoCA for a conversation and preview of his new project, The Bark of Millions, original music celebrating queer luminaries throughout history.

Taylor Mac in Conversation & Song, courtesy of MASS MoCA

J. Hoard | December 3 at 8 p.m.

Melding the core of the Black church and the allure of Broadway, J. Hoard’s original compositions and arrangements easily shift genres to articulate his vivid songwriting

To buy event tickets, visit https://massmoca.org/event/museum-tickets/. For more information about MASS MoCA, visit www.massmoca.org.

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Jewish Federation’s annual summer concert with celebrated Jewish musician Rick Recht 

Rick Recht. Photo courtesy of the Jewish Federation of the Berkshires.

Pittsfield– On Monday, August 22 at 7 p.m., the Jewish Federation of the Berkshires will hold its annual concert, this year featuring Rick Recht – one of the most influential and celebrated Jewish artists and leaders in the USA. His innovations in Jewish music, media, and leadership training have had a profound impact on the fabric of Jewish life.

Recht is the national celebrity spokesman for PJ Library and the founder and executive director of Songleader Boot Camp (SLBC) – a premiere national leadership training conference. He is also the founder and executive director of Jewish Rock Radio (JRR) and JKids Radio, the first high-caliber, 24/7 international Jewish music radio networks.

Recht will be joined by the Berkshire Jewish Musicians Collective for an evening of joyful, soulful, and powerful music. Concert proceeds to benefit the ADL’s A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE® anti-bias peer training program in Berkshire County schools.

The concert will take place at Knesset Israel, 16 Colt Road in Pittsfield. General Admission: $20. Young Adults under 30: $15. Kids 18 and under: FREE. Advance purchases are required, and can be made on the Federation’s website.

For more information, please call the Federation at (413) 442-4360, ext. 10.

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AugustFest in the Village at the David M. Hunt Library

Falls Village, Conn.— The David M. Hunt Library will host Augustfest in the Village on Sunday August 21, from 4 to 6 p.m. 

Held outdoors on the library’s shady lawn, this fundraiser will feature grilled brats, craft beers from Norbrook Farm Brewery, hot pretzels from The Falls Village Inn, a silent auction, and live music by Kane Clawson with Country Jam performing songs by Patsy Cline and others. A vegetarian option and lemonade will also be served, and each guest will receive a limited-edition Hunt Library cup.

Silent auction items include a Coach purse, a cocktail party in Bunny Williams’s “Bird House Garden,” a private scenic plane ride and picnic for two over the Berkshires, a portrait session with photographer Rebecca Bloomfield, and a private wine tasting with Jim Kennedy of Salisbury Wines.

Tickets for the event are $30; $5 for children under 12. Tickets can be purchased by calling the library at 860-824-7424, by visiting huntlibrary.org/augustfest, or by stopping by the library at 63 Main Street in Falls Village.

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BITS & BYTES: Dragons at Springfield Museums; Berkshire Choral International at Tanglewood; Berkshire Music School at Wander; OLLI presents David Tatel; Lenox Library Read...

Springfield Museums presents “Here Be Dragons,” a one-of-a-kind immersive exhibition that brings visitors face-to-face with live reptiles, touchable models, and paleontological discoveries that blur the lines between fantasy and reality.

CONNECTIONS: Ferdinand Hoffman, from Suhi to Stockbridge (Part One)

Six Stockbridge ladies joined together to form a club to save at least one Hungarian refugee. Their plan was to invite a refugee to Stockbridge to be housed and fed during the winter. Henry Sedgwick sent Ferdinand Hoffmann.

The Edge Is Free To Read.

But Not To Produce.