The Fabulous 413

Music is the food of active minds, and that’s just science. And Fridays are the time that we get our music on, but we’re even more excited to meet those for whom a musical journey is just beginning. So we head to STEM Academy along with Rachel Rivard and Carolyn Dufresne of the Community Music School of Springfield to check out the 6th grade woodwind band, who are one of the classes that both participates in their Sonido Musica program and will benefit from the current Play It Forward Drive. We hear from the students and teachers what having music as a part of their curriculum adds to their lives and perspectives. Then for Live Music Friday a western mass fixture makes a pivot in sound and a change in lineup to reinvent itself in wider sonic perspective. Splendid Torch has risen from the bones of Mamma’s Marmalade and just released an album last week titled Icon, for which you can join their celebration tonight at The Drake in Amherst. Plus if you were also heartbroken at the departure of our Hampden county wine friend Michael Quinlan, you’ll be heartened by the cameo taking place in today’s wine thunderdome at State Street Fruit Store, Deli, Wine and Spirits.

In western Mass there’s a lot of old mill buildings. A lot of those old factories are also finding new lives and new industries to fill their halls. And frankly there’s so much to do in those spaces that today on the Fabulous 413 we’re headed up to North Adams to spend our whole day in one, along route 2 at Greylock WORKS. We’ll chat with designer-architect Salvatore Perry about he and his co-founder Karla Rothstein's vision for the facility, and bringing function, community, and utility all together in their many purposed spaces, while exploring some of those spaces ourselves And we’ll meet some of the many folx creating in the building’s work spaces Including Painter and consultant Julia Dixon. Kat Hand and Matt Brogan of Berkshire Cider Project walk us through their barrels and carboys in their experimentally alluring tasting room. We'll stretch out in the newly expanded studios of Greylock Yoga with owner Nicole Rizzo. And gush about the goodness and connections food brings with Chef artist and farmer Tu Le at his restaurant State.

We are taking the good with the worstest, and sometimes blending the two! The latest work of author Heidi Stemple is a complete amalgam of poetry, and narrative fiction. The Poetry of Car Mechanics measures family trauma against self discovery and nature in a way that we are going to try really hard not to spoil when she visits the studio to talk with us about this new book, and get to ask about creating a plot within this mixture. We’ll also head to Amherst Nurseries, where trees are the lay of their agricultural land, and have been for decades going. Owner John Kinchla walks us, and new head of CISA Jennifer Core on her first field trip with us, through his very rain soaked acres to see the innovative ways they’re growing, and give us more insight to the real extent of some of the federal cuts to agriculture from a landscaping perspective. Then word nerd Emily Brewster, senior editor at Merriam-Webster, drudges up some better words for us to use for things that are terrible, so that even at our lowest, we can still use fun language to describe our catastrophic and awful circumstances.

Today has a properly aligned patch of alliteration First, fandom, which is what we have for the soundtracks that Randall Poster has overseen. He’s been the music supervisor for over 200 films and tv shows, and will have a curated weekend looking at his work and the films that have inspired him at the triplex this weekend. But we bring the hidden aural gem savant onto our show to talk about soundtracks vs scoring, the nature of curation, and more. Then farms, as we head to the north Berkshires. Against the backdrop of the massive limestone quarry, Full Well Farms has been thriving for 8 years, shifting focus from dairy farm to more sustainable practices in produce, and its leadership to being women and queer led. Owner Meg Bantle, whose family has been working the land for over a century, takes us on a tour of the regenerative farm, shows us how flowers help their mission succeed, and how their practices seek to balance the food inequities they see in the area. And lastly, funding cuts, which are on all of our minds as of late. State budget cuts are affecting Cutchins Programs for family and Children. Established in the 80s as an alternative to the state hospitals, the organization provides centers and programming to help with school, treatment, and more. Director Tina Champagne joins us to talk about their work and the challenges these cuts present.

Today our size is shifting to get larger and smaller simultaneously. We talk with Kainaat Studios and Hampshire College’s Salman Hameed, Mr. Universe who’ll explain more about the proposed cuts to NASA and the NSF, and how those cuts will affect both academic institutions (like the five colleges) and American astronomical research as a whole. Then, just to narrow our aperture a bit, we’ll explore books all over the four counties! Mass Kid’s Lit Festival is happening all week and will have events for kids of all ages and their grown ups all over Western Massachusetts. It’s their first year expanding into the Berkshires, and we’ll chat with organizer Courtney Andree about bringing Children’s Book Week to the Bay State and the many authors your little can meet and do workshops with in the coming days Speaking of narrowing, a much beloved event that’s had a long running history of performances at the Shea Theater in Turner’s Falls has had to put a pause on this year’s occasion. The Immigrant Voices performance gathered many of the students, clients, and alumni of the Center for New Americans, and gave them a stage to share their culture and talents with the community. Director Laurie Millman joins us to talk about the hard decision to put the series on hiatus, and the shift in circumstances her organization is seeing.

Today we've got copious amounts of music, a little bit of joy from saving the planet, and two sterling examples of not being fenced in by labels within your artwork. One of our neighbors to the north is about to make a visit to the area. Canadian independent artist JayWood is making a stop in Northampton soon. We chat with him about his day job at a postal worker, the effect grief has had on some of his most poignant work, and the clandestine meeting and collaboration that lead to his current tour with tUnE-yArDs . And right here at home, singer-songwriter Kris Delmhorst just released a whole new album this past March, and next week will celebrate the accomplishment with a stop at the Iron Horse. After two years of begging and pleading we finally get her into the studio to talk the wealth of musical talent within her family, the wide span of sounds that make their way to her fretboard, and what spurs her to collaborate with so many folx on this batch of songs. Plus in Lenox, although a lot of things going on are troubling, that doesn’t mean it is all bad news entirely, and at Dare Bottleshop with Ben and Mary Daire we taste through some vineyards that are engaging with better growing practices for the planet, and learn about the climate optimist in our own backyard who you can meet this Tuesday, May 6th: Anne Therese Genari, as well as the pairing they'll participate in on Wednesday, May 7th.

We’re looking at the center of a couple of venn diagrams, and the circles bringing those centers together. For instance the artistic circles that overlap through the fantastic venues we have in the area. At the Shea theater, Nero Orchestra will perform its season closing performance tomorrow night, and on that same stage the next night, Eggtooth productions brings in partners in unconventional theater: Karen Montanaro and Jack Golden . But Eggtooth itself is performing down the road at the academy of Music which is an interesting way to lay out the landscape, so we’ll chat with Cailin Marcel Manson of Nero Orchestra, Linda Tardif of the Shea Theater and Linda McInerney of Eggtoth Productions about the performances and spaces that have crossed their respective streams. And in Amherst, some intrepid art students are taking on a daunting task: Making picture books about slavery. We head to UMass Amherst to meet a handful of students whose books are a part of the exhibit Sowing History, Reaping Justice. We’ll hear about their experiences with the creation of these works, accompanied by some of the academic stewards on the topic of Slavery in children’s books and Canada and the US north respectively: Professors Rafael Rogers of Clark University and Charmaine Nelson of the Slavery North Initiative, who’ll bring more insight to the endeavor.

Today we're spending all our time in higher education. Senior editor at Merriam-Webster, and UMass Amherst alumna Emily Brewster joins us on the upper floors of the W.E.B. Du Bois Library, where we’ll meet digital content editor Lauren Hubbard. She’ll introduce us to the library’s most notorious residents: the peregrine falcons making their roost on the roof. Both of whom have names that our Word Nerd will be particularly interested in learning more about, and whose eggs and their nearness to hatching have caught much attention lately. And just down the street at Amherst College, there is a revered literary publication called The Common that is celebrating its 25th year of publication. And on this, the last day of National Poetry Month, we’ll talk with the Editor-in-Chief, Jennifer Acker, and student interns Kei Lim and Aidan Cooper about the place of poetry and prose in a nation that continues to chip away at the arts.

We’re bringing up the lights on cool community action. Including the 4 days of cinematic endeavors making up the Fourth Easthampton Film Festival. Starting Thursday May first, Easthampton will bring more than 30 films over a wide range of genres, panels, workshops, concerts and more to Whoville. We hear from organizer Chris Ferry about putting this event together, and creating community among the filmmakers in the area We also get to talk with folx from the feature film being premiered at the festival. Tallywacker was filmed in western mass, with a primarily western mass cast, inspired by the real experiences of one of its leads, Jeremy Macomber-Dubs. Along with co-star Chris Goodwin, and assistant producer/actor Rebecca Macomber Dubs we learn more about the process of creating a full length movie from scratch and the music that makes it extra real. And a new farm is seeking to bring fresh produce and food equity to its neighbors and neighborhood. Nordica Community Farm sits on a nicely hidden 11 acre plot in Springfield that nearly was razed and developed, but through community action and community partners now houses a small CSA, pick your own herbs, and a burgeoning orchard. We speak with owners Anne Richmond and Todd Crosset, as well as CSA Member Ariana Williams about the triumphs and trials of growing just around the corner.

Today is all rainbows.Double rainbows in fact! We start with Hampshire Pride, who’ll get marching in Northampton this Saturday May 3rd. They’re the first and longest running pride in the area, and that means a lot of evolution in events and leadership. We chat with organizers Clay Pearson and River Matos about what’s in store for the community this year, as well as what they’ve learned in their three years at the helm. And it’s with the Rainbow Players, who’re celebrating their 25th anniversary. The theater troupe has been creating devised improvisational works firmly grounded in the sphere of social justice in the valley since 1999, working especially with those who have lived experience of disability. We’ll talk with artistic director and founder Ezzell Floraniña, and company members Wole Abiodun and Jay Lithgow about their work, the development of their conjoined non-profit ETTA international, and the gala, fashion show, and other events happening at which you can support their work Plus Mr. Universe, Kainaat Studios and Hampshire College’s Salman Hameed discusses the potential signature of life on a planet 120 light years away, and the pitfalls of assumptions made when such discoveries become public.

What do you get when you mix a novel approach to foster care, devised theater, and a youth leadership program all in one place? Locally, the answer is Truth Tellers Theater Ensemble; an inter-generational devised theater group where cast members use the healing powers of storytelling, community, and performance to share their tales with audiences each spring. We head to Holyoke to talk with folx from Treehouse Foundation, Heroes Youth Leadership Program, and Truth Tellers about the strength of their collaboration, their bevvy of upcoming performances, the high profile audiences of their short but impactful past, and how you can support that with their upcoming Runway 5k at a nearby local airport very soon. Live music Friday puts extra dance in your orbit with the space psych-rock disco of the 4 piece Escaper, who’ll perform at the Iron Horse tonight, April 25th. Plus we get a preview of the upcoming Italian Wine Festival at Provisions in North Amherst with a north vs south thunderdome at their Northampton location, with a tasty cheese making a guest appearance.

Today is for the brothers and the birds, not a bee in sight Well, seeing kinda factors into it too! We head to Amherst where on a particularly idyllic corner of the UMass Campus, hordes of migratory birds are making their way back north. Professor Nathan Senner grabs us some binoculars and his trusty dog Oliver to head out into the woods to discover the many feathered friends that are finding a home at the institution. He also enlightens us to the ways that the campus itself is posing a problem to their conservation efforts as well as the methods they’re experimenting with to make the school’s landscape a bit safer for the birds as they travel through the grounds, and how you can help those efforts. And in Florence at the Bombyx Center for Arts and Equity, prose, theater and pie are coming together on stage this weekend. The Florence Poetry Carnival will bring in the Brother’s Keeper Poetry and Theater Ensemble as the featured literary artists for “Poetry and Pie” evening on April 26th. And we’ll speak with founding member Marlon Carey about the group’s work, the melding of their styles on stage, and the clandestine meeting between him and the poetry carnival’s founder in Providence. And although we don't have a chance to chat with congressman Jim McGovern, our hearts and sympathies are with him as his family navigates recent tragedy. Note: The comic artist Kaliis mentioned who has illustrations of bird calls is Rosemary Mosco

Today is getting extra retro with an extra New England pastime, archaic conundrums, and classic ways of making art. That art is actually up and down the hilltowns through Hampshire and Franklin Counties. The Asparagus Valley Pottery Trail not only opens several studios to the public, but invites folx from all around to witness their process of creation with 8 stops of different ceramic artists along the way. We stop in Florence, at the only wood fired Kiln along that route to chat with artists James Guggina and Tiffany Hilton, as well as James' intern Lucas Putney, about their work, and the festivities. And the pastime is bowling. Because few outside of New England know of or have played candlepin bowling, but its the style housed by the oldest operating bowling alleys in the nation, the second of which is in Shelburne Falls. We head to Shelburne Falls Bowling Alley where owners Tony and Tam Hanna show us how the game is played, how the lanes, are maintained, and how long the history of the location stretches. Plus word Nerd Emily Brewster senior editor at Merriam Webster lays an over 700 year old mystery in our laps.Or does it lie in your lap? We’ll look at the homophone pairing of lay and lie and which one we should let sleeping dogs do.

It’s Earth Day! So we’re going to look at our mother through local lenses and explore our waterways, our skies, and of course, the ways we feed ourselves and each other. If we’re looking up, light pollution has more factors than just keeping you up at night, and one of the organizations seeking to bring more awareness to those factors is Northampton City Lights. Their mission is to Protect human health and wildlife by changing the way we think about municipal lighting and we’ll hear from Catherine Moriarty how their Northampton Night Fest event tonight at Historic Northampton will help them do more of that. And if we’re looking down to the water, Prof. Christine Hatch of Umass Extension has been examining swamps, bogs, streams and more. how those precious ecosystems are affected by human interaction, and how we can aid in their preservation and restoration are some of the questions we’ll ask when she joins us in studio Plus, transport may be the least sexy part of our local foodways, but that doesn’t make it any less vital. Nick Martinelli of Marty’s Local and Cathy Stanton of Quabbin Harvest Co-op talk to us about the important place local distributors have to farmers, retailers, and consumers as well to make a healthy food ecosystem.

Today is Patriots Day, commemorating the battle of Lexington and Concord and the “shot heard round the world” which happened 250 years ago in what is now the 617 area code. But today in the 413, we’ll look back to last week when Western Mass planted a flag for our OWN left side of the state holiday-April 13th as 413 Day We’ll take you back to CitySpace in Easthampton where we were joined by regular guests of the show Emily Brewster, resident wordster from Merriam-Webster, who enlightens us on Massachusetts regionalisms and accents and answers some questions from our live audience And talk with prof. Ousmane Power-Green from our Power of History segment about why our abolitionist history here in the 413 is worth exploring and celebrating Plus Live Music from the Western Mass stalwart singer-songwriter Erin McKeown who’ll play us some songs on a borrowed guitar, and who’ll give us a taste of the new musical they’re working which is set to debut next year

We’re encouraging you to make a late night of it, because the Iron Horse, now almost a year into it’s new incarnation, is bringing back late shows, and tonight’s is a doozy of dance, connection, and genre defying music that’ll make you move, and feel, and lots of good stuff. For Live Music Friday we’ll hear from Bella’s Bartok, who are wrapping up their winter/spring residency of late nights at the horse tonight. We’ll hear how their latest album, Apocalypse Wow, sounds on its feet, and learn how important a residency can be to the growth of one’s sound. On that same bill is the powerful queerpunk duo Film & Gender, who’ve just come off of a 10 day east coast tour. We’ll hear about the new music, the difference in feel between DIY venues and more established ones, becoming even more vulnerable in one’s lyrics and more with bassist Issley. K: and with Spring officially springing, we’ll head to Shelburne Falls to check out orange wines in a battle of the coasts for the Tina Turner Memorial Wine THunderdome at the Juicebox Wine Bar

Today, as every day, we are speaking the language of community, near and far, and in all walks. For instance, in the Berkshires, and a little beyond, an organization we’re getting to know better is helping folx in the westernest part of the state to have more access to more food in spite of cuts to programming everywhere. We chat with Berkshire Agricultural Ventures Executive Director Rebecca Busansky, about their Market Match program which is currently fundraising for the 2025 year of growing, to hear about how they are filling a gap left by HIP and raising all boats with the effort. We’ll also get a little Live Music Thursday in with Brooklyn via Northampton based Stefan Weiner, who’s ending a hiatus in music with the release of his new album How Lucky You Are. We’ll hear about what inspirations lay amongst the tracks and if homecoming factors into any of it. And our weekly chat with US. Representative Jim McGovern hits close to home as well as away from it as we discuss the proposed cuts to CPB, the inaction regarding detained legal immigrants both domestic and abroad, the insurrection act’s possible enactment, and a pile of questions from listeners like you.

We are covering a lot of ground. Including a brand new venture for a collective right here in town. The brand new Marketplace at Gasoline Alley is bringing 5 entrepreneurs together with their offerings expanded into a new space attached to the Urban Food Brood. We’ll speak with some of the folx who’ve settled into this new spot: Kate Forest and Missy Doe of Forest Doe Botanicals and Kristina Marie Denson of Journey’s Lemonade, with the CUTEST CAMEO from that business’ namesake and a good look at how collaborative economics can work right in our own backyard. And a 35 year career in folk music that’ll bring all that experience and versatility to The Parlor Room stage next weekend. David Wilcox started playing guitar in college in the eighties and hasn’t stopped since and we get to pepper the singer-songwriter about his Canadian doppleganger, the artists that inspire him, and the shifts in the musical landscape both esoteric and physical Plus our resident wordster, Emily Brewster, senior editor at Merriam Webster explores a listener question about the contexts for their dictionary’s citations, while Kaliis accidentally side steps into a question about curing meats

Two tales of agriculture and commerce, alike in virtue, a spring of hope from a winter of despair. The Cannabis Control Commission recently swept through western Mass, making visits with officials and business owners in all 4 counties. Despite the recent shake-ups within the department, they’re currently looking forward into expanding how businesses might offer more green to the people through social consumption. We speak with acting Chair of the CCC Bruce Stebbins about what that concept could entail, how cannabis businesses are faring in the Bay State and especially Western Mass., and how the commission is faring after nearly 10 years of legal weed. We’ll also head to Conway to a farm most innovative in practice, philosophy and action. Natural Roots has been growing produce in the hilltowns in a number of ways that are unique to their plots and bringing their crops to the area. From their crop rotation, to the actual horses powering their equipment, they’ve sought to reduce and remove fossil fuels from their farming operations. We’ll chat to proprietor David Fisher about his recent award from CISA, why reducing their carbon footprint through their machinery choices was so crucial to their agricultural plans, and get a tour through their sprawling beautiful grounds along the South River, and get to meet the horses!

Although the United States was never specifically a penal colony, it’s hard to deny that in our history, the penal system and penal labor were crucial to the founding of the nation, especially as we prepare to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the first fights of the revolutionary war. So today, we’ll take a look at an art exhibit that looks at the present day of incarceration, as it relates to those in power. Prison Re-Imagined is a collection of artwork by folx who were in the prison system, and the project was organized by Curator and Artistic Director, Cadell “Monty” Kivett from inside a correctional facility in North Carolina. We’ll chat with Monty and Director of Wistariahurst Megan Seiler about the power of this display and some of the roadblocks in our system that deter it’s showing. We’ll also bring you back in time to yesterday where we had a whole party celebrating the area for 413 Day in Easthampton. Where Lt Gov Kim Driscoll stopped by to join in the festivities and give us an extra cool present from the Governor in person, and in writing! And we got a whole other present on that stage from Mr. Universe, Kainaat Studios and Hampshire College’s Salman Hameed, all while exploring the ways that galaxies are formed and photographed and we’ll share that as well!