Simon’s Rock to host second annual gospel concert
Great Barrington — Bard College at Simon’s Rock will kick off its Black History Month celebration with its second annual gospel concert on Saturday, Feb. 4, at 7 p.m. in the Daniel Arts Center. The concert will feature a range of traditional and contemporary gospel music by the Praise Ensemble and Ivey Squared of the Macedonia Baptist Church in Albany, New York; the Mount Pleasant Liturgical Dancers of the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Albany; and the Shiloh Youth Choir of the Shiloh Baptist Church in Hudson, New York.
The concert will also feature special performances by James Weldon Johnson Foundation co-founder and president Rufus Jones and Arielle King, a Simon’s Rock junior and the impetus behind the annual event. Jones will lead the audience in a rendition of Johnson’s “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” also known as the Black National Anthem. King will perform as both a soloist and a member of her church choir, the Macedonia Baptist Church Praise Ensemble.
The event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Simon’s Rock at (413) 644-4400 or info@simons-rock.edu.
–E.E.
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Journalist Reese Erlich at Stockbridge Library
Stockbridge — On Saturday, Feb. 4, at 4 p.m., the Stockbridge Library, Museum & Archives will host freelance foreign correspondent Reese Erlich who will give a talk titled “A Reporter’s Perspective: Islamic State, Assad, Russia, and the Failure of U.S. Policy.” Based on numerous reporting trips to the region, Erlich will discuss the growth of Syrian extremist rebel groups, the status of the Assad regime, foreign intervention and the failure of U.S. policy. He will provide up-to-date analysis and what the new U.S. president faces in one of the world’s major crises.
Erlich is a Peabody Award-winning journalist and author of “Inside Syria: The Backstory of Their Civil War and What the World Can Expect.” He has written five books on U.S. foreign policy and he reports for NPR, Foreign Policy, VICE News, the Progressive and others.
For more information, contact the library at (413) 298-5501 or info@stockbridgelibrary.org.
–E.E.
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Flying Deer Nature Center offers animal tracking workshops
Housatonic — On Saturday, Feb. 4, at 7 p.m., Flying Deer Nature Center will present Dan Hansche of White Pine Programs in Cape Neddick, Maine, who will give a talk titled “Tracking in the Wild: Insights, Awareness, Intrigue” at the Housie Market Café. A registered Maine guide, Hansche will share stories of tracking in a wide range of settings, from the northeastern U.S. to the mountains of Wyoming and the deserts of South Africa. Admission is by donation.
For those interested in a hands-on experience of wildlife tracking, Flying Deer and Tamakoce Wilderness Programs will team up to offer a weekend immersion program for those age 18 and up, Friday, Feb. 17, through Sunday, Feb. 19, in the woods of the Rensselaer Plateau. Participants will spend two full days in the field following trails and interpreting tracks and signs, accompanied by evening and morning presentations and activities. Food and rustic lodgings along the trail will be provided.
For more information or to register, call (518) 794-6687.
–E.E.
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Williams’ planetarium spring semester schedule
Williamstown — Astronomy students at Williams College will host free shows for the public at the Milham Planetarium inside the Hopkins Observatory on Friday evenings at 8 p.m. beginning Feb. 3 and running through May 12, with the exception of Spring Break (March 17, 24 and 31). Audiences will be treated to shows from the high-precision Zeiss Skymaster ZKP3/B opto-mechanical planetarium projector installed in April 2005, which is capable of demonstrating retrograde motions of the planets, phases of the moon, the varying temperatures/colors of stars, locations of neighboring galaxies, the mythological figures and zodiacal signs ascribed to constellations, the Southern Hemisphere’s sky, comets, artificial satellites and more.
Shows will last about 50 minutes and reservations are required. For more information or to make reservations, contact Michele Rech at (413) 597-2188 or mcr4@williams.edu. Large groups should call for special appointments. Others will be admitted as space permits.
–E.E.
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Documentary Filmmakers Series at Scoville
Salisbury, Conn. — Documentary filmmakers Pamela Hogan and Oren Rudavsky will present a sneak preview of some of their work when they participate in the Documentary Filmmakers Series on Saturday, Feb. 4, at 4 p.m. at the Scoville Memorial Library. Hogan and Rudavsky will present and discuss a series of profiles from the PBS series “Time for School,” which follows seven children in seven countries from kindergarten through high school as they fight the odds to get a basic education. They will also explore how filmmakers come up with ideas and secure funding, face the challenges involved in gaining access to stories, build trust and impact social change.
Emmy award-winning filmmaker, journalist and media executive Hogan’s most recent independent film was 2015’s “Looks Like Laury Sounds Like Laury.” She was one of the creators of the series “Women, War & Peace” and director of one episode. She is currently an adjunct professor at the Columbia Journalism School and her new project spotlights the 1975 Icelandic women’s strike that transformed the country.
Rudavsky is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts. He recently completed the films “The Ruins of Lifta” and “Colliding Dreams” and is currently producing a PBS documentary on the life of Joseph Pulitzer and a film titled “Witness Theater” that is based on a unique, year-long program grouping Holocaust survivors and high school students in New York.
For more information, contact the library at (860) 435-2838 or scovlibn@biblio.org.
–E.E.
