Manos Unidas to present multicultural Harvest of Hope festival
Pittsfield — Manos Unidas Hands Helping Hands Cooperative invites community members of all backgrounds and beliefs to celebrate diversity and unity at the Harvest of Hope festival and dance party on Saturday, Oct. 1, from noon – 11 p.m. at the First Street Common and the Whitney Center for the Arts.
Harvest of Hope is an opportunity to promote the values of the Earth Charter through a living, community-building, awareness-raising event that serves as a platform for change, informing and activating people through a collectivized shared community story of hope.
The Harvest of Hope vision of weaving unity into the community will be showcased at noon on the Common in an array of creative outpourings such as storytelling, collective art creation, theater arts, spoken and musical performances, a planetary puppet procession, live civic workshops, and tables held by partnering organizations and sponsors on social, economic, and environmental topics. The event will culminate with a multicultural Harvest Feast at 5:15 p.m., also at the Common, and a World Groove Dance-In featuring local instructors and global dance styles at the Whitney Center for the Arts at 7:30 p.m.
The event is free and open to the public. There is a suggested donation of $5 – $10 for the Harvest Feast, but all are welcome regardless of their ability to pay. For more information, contact (413) 841-0298 or manosunidasorg@gmail.com.
–E.E.
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Club Helsinki Hudson to present Tom Brosseau and Sean Watkins
Hudson, N.Y. — Folksinger, songwriter, and guitarist Tom Brosseau and his producer and multi-instrumentalist Sean Watkins will perform at Club Helsinki Hudson on Sunday, Oct. 2, at 8 p.m.
Brosseau’s newest album, “North Dakota Impressions,” is the third installment in a trilogy about life in his home state. Brosseau has toured with John Doe, Juliana Hatfield, PJ Harvey, the Punch Brothers, Milk Carton Kids, and Nickel Creek, and his songs have been covered by such acts as Chris Thile, Mice Parade, Silje Nes, and pop duo Christy & Emily. Since 2010, Brosseau has performed with Becky Stark and John C. Reilly in John Reilly & Friends, a band devoted to the current American folk music revival.
Singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sean Watkins has long been known for his work as one-third of the Grammy Award-winning Nickel Creek and also for helming, along with his sister, Sara Watkins, the itinerant, genre-hopping Watkins Family Hour ensemble. In addition to producing Brosseau’s “North Dakota Impressions,” Watkins also directed the recording of Brosseau’s 2014 album “Grass Punks.”
For tickets and more information, see the Berkshire Edge calendar or call the Club at (518) 828-4800.
–E.E.
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Storytelling workshop with Sheela Clary
Great Barrington — Berkshire South Regional Community Center will host two storytelling workshops with Edge columnist and the Moth GrandSLAM storyteller Sheela Clary from 1 – 3 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 2, and Sunday, Nov. 6. Clary will lead participants through exercises in writing, public speaking, improv, and more. The cost of each workshop is $15 for Berkshire South members and $18 for guests. For more information, contact Berkshire South at (413) 528-2810 or info@berkshiresouth.org.
–E.E.
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Classes to be offered at Daniel Bellow Pottery
Great Barrington — Daniel Bellow Pottery will offer classes in wheel work and handbuilding in a new, state-of-the-art facility on Railroad Avenue. Classes will begin on Tuesday, Oct. 4.
The wheel class, which is limited to six participants and will meet Wednesdays from 3:30 – 5:30 p.m. and 7 – 9 p.m., will be taught by potter Daniel Bellow and cover all aspects of throwing, finishing, assembly, decoration, glazing and firing. Bellow has studied with Tom White, Mary Risley and Jim Dugan and his work has appeared in the Anthropologie and Uncommon Goods catalogs and in fine stores and galleries nationwide including the Berkshire Museum and Mass MoCA. He has taught at the Berkshire Waldorf High School for 11 years.
The handbuilding class, which will meet Tuesdays from 10 a.m. – noon, will be taught by local artist Bobbie Lefenfeld whose unique, hand-built designs have been sold in fine stores throughout the United States. The class will cover pinch-, coil- and slab-building, and decorative strategies and techniques.
The cost is $200 for four two-hour sessions, which includes all clay and glaze materials and firing in the gas reduction kiln. For more information or to sign up for either class, contact Daniel Bellow at (413) 429-7111 or daniel@danielbellow.com.
–E.E.
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Williams professor Jay M. Pasachoff receives Richtmyer Memorial Lecture Award
Williamstown — Williams College has announced that the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) has selected Jay M. Pasachoff to receive the 2017 Richtmyer Memorial Lecture Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions to physics and effectively communicating those contributions to physics educators. The award will be presented at a ceremonial session of the AAPT’s winter meeting in Atlanta where Pasachoff will deliver a talk entitled “Observing the Great American Eclipse of August 21, 2017.”
Pasachoff is the Field Memorial Professor of Astronomy at Williams College and the author of textbooks and tradebooks in astronomy, physics, mathematics, and other sciences. He studied at Harvard University, receiving his bachelor’s degree in 1963, his master’s degree in 1965, and his doctorate in 1969. He worked at the Harvard College Observatory and Caltech before going to Williams College in 1972. Pasachoff is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the International Planetarium Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, and the Royal Astronomical Society, and he has held a Getty Fellowship. He is a member of the American Astronomical Society and is past chair of its Historical Astronomy Division. Pasachoff has received several awards for teaching and the popularization of astronomy through his writing of textbooks. He is U.S. national liaison to, and was president (2003–2006) of the Commission on Education and Development of the International Astronomical Union, has twice been chair of the Astronomy Division of the AAAS, and has been on the astronomy committees of the American Astronomical Society, the American Physical Society, and the AAPT.
–E.E.
