May 5 First Fridays Artswalk
Pittsfield — The May 5 First Fridays Artswalk will encompass more than a dozen art shows featuring over 20 accomplished regional artists in Pittsfield’s Upstreet Cultural District from 5 to 8 p.m. The Artswalk will kick off with opening receptions and artists present throughout, plus a free guided walking tour beginning at 5 p.m. at the BRTA Intermodal Center. The evening will culminate with a free afterwalk party from 8 to 10 p.m. at the Whitney Center for the Arts.
Soldier On’s Veterans Community Arts Initiative, which engages homeless veterans in arts and cultural activities to promote healing and expand networks of support, will host a one-night-only art show at the Intermodal Center.
City Hall, 70 Allen St., will host the Berkshires Jazz high school art contest through the end of May. The contest features works of art created by high school students that depict their thoughts and conceptions of jazz. The winning entry will become part of the publicity used to promote the Pittsfield CityJazz Festival, appearing on the posters and program cover.
Throughout the month of May, the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts will host the annual Art in Our Schools exhibit, a springtime tradition for more than 30 years honoring art education and creative young people in grade 6 through 12 in the Pittsfield Public Schools.
New shows from local artists will also be displayed at Hotel on North, Shire City Sanctuary, RJ Stohr Diamonds & Fine Jewelry, Berkshire Medical Center, the Marketplace Café, Berkshire Paint and Sip, the Funky Phoenix, the Whitney Center for the Arts, and the Kinderhook Group Real Estate.
For more information, call Downtown Pittsfield Inc. at (413) 443-6501.
–E.E.
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HVA to hold spring work party on Old Mill Trail
Hinsdale — The Housatonic Valley Association will hold its annual spring work party on the Old Mill Trail, a 1.5-mile trail along the east branch of the Housatonic River, on Saturday, May 6, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Volunteers are needed to help clean the trail of winter debris, rake leaves, pick up trash, replace lost markers and hand-pull invasive plants such as garlic mustard, celandine and winged euonymous. Those who wish to participate are asked to meet at the trailhead on Old Dalton Road opposite the Hinsdale Trading Company at 371 Old Dalton Rd. Tools, work gloves and snacks will be provided. Half of the trail is wheelchair accessible. For more information, contact Alison Dixon at (413) 298-7024 or adixon@hvatoday.org.
–E.E.
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WAM Theatre to stage reading of ‘Really’ by Jackie Sibblies Drury
West Stockbridge — WAM Theatre’s 2017 Fresh Takes Play reading series will continue Sunday, May 7, at 3:30 p.m. with “Really” by Jackie Sibblies Drury at No. Six Depot Roastery and Café.
“Really” explores the relationship of a young woman to her former boyfriend’s mother, of whom she takes pictures. Both women clutch their memories of him as they search to redefine themselves in his wake. Directed by Alice Reagan, director of Shakespeare & Company’s 2016 production of “Or,”, “Really” includes cast members Danielle Davenport (Playwrights Horizons’ “Men on Boats”), Ariel Bock (Shakespeare & Company’s “Ugly Lies the Bone”) and David Bertoldi (Shakespeare & Company’s 2017 Northeast Regional Tour).
Drury is a Brooklyn, New York-based playwright who received a 2015 Windham-Campbell Prize in drama, a 2012-2013 New Dramatists Van Lier Fellowship, and was the inaugural recipient of the Lark’s 2012-2014 Jerome New York Fellowship. She is a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect and a 2015 United States Artists Gracie Fellow.
Tickets are $20. For tickets and more information, see the Berkshire Edge calendar or contact WAM Theatre at (413) 274-8122 or info@wamtheatre.com.
–E.E.
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Waste oil and paint collection scheduled
Great Barrington — On Saturday, May 6, from 8:30 to 11 a.m., the South Berkshire Household Hazardous Waste Collaborative will hold a paint and oil collection in Great Barrington for the 15 participating towns of Alford, Becket, Egremont, Great Barrington, Lee, Lenox, Monterey, Mount Washington, New Marlborough, Otis, Richmond, Sheffield, Stockbridge, Tyringham and West Stockbridge. The Center for EcoTechnology will coordinate the collections.
Acceptable materials are oil-based paint, stains, paint thinners, spray paint and turpentine as well as waste motor oil. No other type of oil or fuel will be accepted, nor will latex paint. Empty cans can be recycled with scrap metal. Empty cans of oil-based paint, stains and solvents as well as dried-up cans of latex paint can be disposed with the regular trash.
Those interested in participating in the event must register online or contact Coryanne Mansell at (800) 369-3333 x238 or Coryanne.Mansell@cetonline.org by Friday, May 5. Residents from communities that are not participating should call their city or town halls for information about hazardous household product collections.
–E.E.
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Lisken Van Pelt Dus to read at Massachusetts Poetry Festival
Salem — Pittsfield poet Lisken Van Pelt Dus will read her work at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, May 6, as part of the 2017 Massachusetts Poetry Festival. The ninth annual three-day event will feature local and regional poets, poetry readings, workshops, panel discussions and performances.
Van Pelt Dus will participate in a reading of five Massachusetts poets who have published books with WordTech Communications of Cincinnati. Her book “What We’re Made Of,” which was a finalist for the Patricia Bibby First Book Award and a seminfinalist for both the Brittingham and Felix Pollak Prizes in Poetry and the Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry, was published by WordTech’s lyric imprint, Cherry Grove Collections, in May 2016. Van Pelt Dus has also been announced as one of five winners of the festival’s Migration Poetry contest, and an excerpt from her poem “Embarkation” will be featured as a Raining Poetry poem in downtown Salem.
Van Pelt Dus teaches of English and world languages at Monument Mountain Regional High School, where she also serves as coordinator for the school’s Poetry Out Loud program. She and her husband, Bob Dus, are also the co-owners and chief instructors of Elm Street Martial Arts in Pittsfield.
–E.E.
