20 years ago today the nation watched as Hurricane Katrina broke the levees and lay feet of water and devastation on the wards of New Orleans, destroying infrastructure, communities, and lives. 

And today on the Fab 413, we’ll speak with one person displaced by the hurricane happened to land in Ashfield and make themselves a little ubiquitous. Nan Parati has been making signs for businesses, events, and festivals for 4 decades, but when Katrina left her stranded in the Northeast, she built herself into Ashfield’s cultural and culinary landscape by opening Elmer’s

Now it’s the Elmer’s building, and that restaurant is in new hands, so we’ll sit with Nan on this anniversary to get the Full story of amazing coincidences, and to meet the new folx helming a new cafe in the now legendary Elmer’s Space. 

We’ll also hear the melange of sounds that permeate the music of Clarinetist, bandleader, and composer Kinan Azmeh for Live Music Friday, and learn about woodwinds in his native Syria, and the importance of music to a changing world before you can see him perform with his ensemble City band tomorrow night at Antenna Cloud Farm. Plus ACF Founder Michi Wiancko speaks about what it’s like to play with Kinan in the Silk Road Ensemble, where they are both members. 

Healthcare is a fraught issue in the US let alone the region. And there’s a local organization that’s been providing care for a wide variety of avenues to some of the most vulnerable populations across the 4 counties. Tapestry Health has been a force in the 413 for 50 years and has just undergone a few leadership changes. We speak their new Chair of the Board Brad Riley about their current services, and some of the challenges that Tapestry faces in light of the current administration. We’ll also hear how you can help them be around for another 50 years with their upcoming fundraiser The Walk For Every body. 

NEPM reporter  and engineer extraordinaire Phil Bishop explores one of the peskier species that you might be hearing and seeing more of: The Spotted Lantern Fly. MDAR’s Jennifer Foreman Orth explains the true impact of the insect, and what you can do to mitigate its invasion

And Congressman Jim McGovern speaks on the lessons he’s learned from his farm tour, yesterday’s tragic school shooting in Minnesota, listener questions on Gaza, the national guard in DC, the Epstein Files and more.

Every year, the congressman for the 2nd congressional district comes to to area for a whirlwind meeting with farmers, agricultural advocates, and other legislators, and members of his staff at various farms across his district. 

We tag along with U.S. Representative Jim McGovern at the second stop of his 15 location, 2 day Farm Tour up in Ashfield at Foxtrot Farm and get to see firsthand  how they’re transforming a former hayfield into verdant and resilient farmland. Farm manager Abby Ferla tells us more about some of the farm’s practices and procedures including pick your own and their CSA, and how the uncertainty of our current grant structure is affecting the decisions they have to make right now. 

Then Word Nerd Emily Brewster, senior editor at Merriam-Webster escalates down the hill to talk about contradictory phrases and uses of words that are far more than meets the eye and that all seem to have something to do with falling or rising... 

And as it’s Wednesday and traditionally that was the day we nerd out about things, we’ll bring back a quick Nerdwatch to explore the sudden uptick in the Isekai genre, and games that'll maintain that summer feeling way into the colder months. 

We’re trying our best to get around, and a recent survey of folx in the area show that they’re having problems with that too. 

The People and Transportation Project report looks at the ways that folx in the 4 counties are and aren’t getting around, and the hardships they face getting from point A to Point which can have bigger repercussions in many other facets of daily life. We head next door to Wayfinders to chat with President Keith Fairey and MassINC Polling Group Research Director Rich Parr, who worked together to take this snapshot of what moving around in Hampden and Hampshire counties really looks like, and how it impacts jobs, schools, health and more. 

And we’ll see one couple’s agricultural dreams made reality in Bernardston, where two one-time academic researchers left their Boston labs to get their hands in the soil at Coyote Hill Farm. Ervin and Gloria Meluleni give us a grand tour of the land they cleared themselves and work organically, full of innovations and lessons from the land they’ve learned over the past few decades, including stumbling accidentally into a CSA.

We have a cure for your Mondays.

It’s music! Music is the cure!

And a new venue that we just saw last month is getting ready to launch right into a new concert series. The Hope Center for the Arts in Springfield is reviving its days as the City Center and is announcing its inaugural 25/26 Season of performances, and we’ll chat with Isaac Eddy, Lorenzo Gaines, and Kyle Homestead about the line-up.

In Northampton, they’re encouraging you to make your own music. The Northampton Community Music Center is hosting an Instrument Petting Zoo tomorrow, inviting all walks and ages of folx to their building to test out new ways of making sound. Vocalist, bassist, current Digital co-ordinator and former student of the center Indë Francis lets us test out some of the instruments that’ll be available to the public for the event. 

Plus, resident Astronomer Mr. Universe, Salman Hameed, gives us even more information about how the platform he leads, Kainaat Studios, is leaning even further into getting all those folx to engage with the lunar eclipse. 

With Arts funding being cut everywhere, the places that are finding it in their hearts and wallets to support the creative communities around them are even more important. And today we’ll talk with Zoë Fieldman of CitySpace about their efforts to do just that. The Pay It Forward Grant recipients have just been announced, and we’ll speak with them about the 10 folx bringing their work to the Easthampton stage over the next few months, as we explore how the landscape for arts patronage is changing. 

We’ll also talk with the first of those recipients coming to the Blue Room’s stage: Chestina Thrower, and learn from the UMass student about their quartet that will accompany them, and what this residency means to the growth of their work and catalog.

Also, it’s time for another Power of History segment with professor Ousmane Power-Greene, where we’ll hear about Elizabeth Mumbet Freeman Day and where you can celebrate it, along with how her case became the proverbial straw on slavery’s back in the Bay State. 

 Metal, wood, fire, a fire lizard, and whales!

Sort of. 

The salamander, which is often translated to fire lizard is the squirmy looking influence behind many congressional districts across the country and gerrymandering looks like it is about to become all the rage for both Republicans and Democrats. And it just so happens that one of the nation’s experts in the history of gerrymandering lives right here in the 413. We welcome back to the show Haydenville’s David Daley to help us navigate through the circuitous political meanderings of rigging elections through redistricting. 

For wood and fire, we’ll head to Wales, Massachusetts where Nipmuc Community organizations have gathered to create a Mishoon in unique collaboration with Norcross Wildlife Sanctuary.. Since the 15th, they've opened this ceremony and tradition to the public so that folx might come and see the ways the first peoples of this land live and thrive. We’ll hear about the importance of this practice in the past and to the present with the people who have inhabited these lands for millennia

The metal is in Millers Falls, where The Heavy Music Campout RPM Fest returns to Montage next weekend and we’ll bang our heads with festival founder Brian Westbrook and hear what new sounds this year has in store for us all, earplugs at the ready. 

 Folk and Americana musicians are all headed for the woods as the Arcadia Folk Festival hits year seven as a plethora of artists over two days headed to North and Easthampton from Red Baraat to Josh Ritter, and more

And to talk with us about the sanctuary that will soon be filled with more than the sounds of songbirds is director of Connecticut River Valley Wildlife Sanctuaries for Mass Audubon Jonah Keane, and we’ll explore not just his favorites of who is performing this weekend, but also the synergy between the festival and the conservation space and the ways the event has continued its dedication to being environmentally friendly. 

We’ll also hear from someone whose emotional outlet became beacon for many. Diane DiMassa author of the comic Hothead Paisan: Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist, is seeing a new anthology of her work released and chats with us about some of the origins of the comic and the ways it continues to resonate with the queer community and beyond before you can meet her in person at Mass Moca’s R & D Bookstore August 21st.  

And word nerd Emily Brewster, senior editor at Merriam-Webster brings us along to ask language why it’s named things incorrectly as we take a look at some common English misnomers. 

We’re continuing to highlight local traditions, and here at the very height of the harvest season, for Franklin County, that means the Harvest Supper which is celebrating it’s 20th year this weekend. We’ll chat with Stone Soup Cafe’s Kirsten Levitt, who helms the affair to chat about it’s origins with Juanita Nelson, the important place the event has in the community and the Cafe’s calendars, and the joys of bringing everyone together to celebrate the bounty of the county.

We’ll also head to Great Barrington where a tradition is currently being grown. The Queer Cinema Club seeks to bring known and hidden screen gems of the LGBTQIA2S+ community to the Triplex Cinema for showings to foster more connection in and around the the Berkshires, and we’ll chat with Ben Eliot, Champika Fernando, and Michelle Kaplan about what you can watch this week.

And in Feeding Hills young beef farmer has spent 35 years doing the very best for his herd, including adding a small breakfast and lunch spot for those on the go. Autumn Mist Farm has supplied beef to local outlets in the area, and we’ll chat with founder Derrick Turnbull about his tenure in the cattle industry, and the hardships this year has presented. 

Look who’s back from vacation!

(It’s us!) 

And look at who else is about to have their vacation end!

Your Kids! 

But going back to fun arts programming can take some of the sting off of that, and there’s a summer send off that helps to make sure those programs happen while also bringing the local music community together.  Transformance 35 happens tomorrow, with a new list of covers being performed by local musicians. We'll speak with one of the organizers of the event, Northampton Arts Council's Steve Sanderson about the event and this year’s theme: “Immigrant Song”, and hear from one of the bands performing at tomorrow’s massive festivities: Big Yellow Taxi, and learn what continues to appeal about the songs of Canadian Joni Mitchell 

Plus Mr. Universe: Salman Hameed talks about how Kainaat Studios is encouraging millions of folx to watch the next lunar eclipse, and a planet near-ish to us we should pay attention to in Alpha Centauri, and the astronomical themes in a Josh Ritter song you might hear this weekend at the Arcadia Folk Festival.