The Fabulous 413

We’ll dive into the pages of a brand new graphic novel that deals with struggles inside and out. The Machine Is Broken deals with a number of hard topics in a technicolor landscape, and for all of its futuristic setting, is very much a story of right now, and we’ll meet with author illustrator Jared Sarnie to discuss this work, and its pictorial narrative. Plus we'll learn how you can celebrate it's long-awaited release at Comics 'N More in Easthampton on Oct 17th. 

Mass Humanities honors its Storytellers of the year next week. This year’s winners, Bomba de Aqui have been teaching and exhibiting Bomba throughout the eastern seaboard, continuing a legacy that began in Puerto Rico and lives on two generations later in Western Mass. Founders Brendaliz Cepeda and Saul Peñalosa chat about what this award means for them, and the ways they’re expanding their education of this artistic tradition. We'll also learn a little about the celebrations you can attend with us on October 15th in Holyoke. 

And The Barn at Lee is bringing Real Estate to life next weekend. The play focuses on two characters “who are constantly moving: moving houses, moving bodies, moving around their desires. Subtle and sexy, their story muses on the pleasure and plight of relocation.” We’ll hear from some of the folx involved about this show and the spring residency it’s connected with. 

Springfield College professor of journalism Martin Dobrow has released a new book that is a small departure from his previous works exploring the histories and culture surrounding sports. Original City, Original Sin: King, the Klan, and the Fight for Civil Rights in St. Augustine, Florida looks at an important year in the history of St, Augustine Florida, and how it intersects with Martin Luther King Jr, Western Mass, and the passing of the civil rights act. We speak with the author about the nuances he discovered that had great impact, and the importance of conveying these stories for the future. Plus we'll tell you how you can celebrate the book with the author at Bombyx Center for Arts & Equity. 

And the Dept of Health and Human services has proposed a huge cut to Head Start Programs across the country, with even the president stating the nation has “no money for daycare”. So we head to the Holyoke, Chicopee and Springfield Headstart to see their programs first hand, accompanied by a vocal advocate for all they provide to our community: State Senator Jake Oliveira. There we see the beautiful facility they’ve converted into an educational facility, and Chief Executive officer Nicole Blais explains that it’s not just kids who benefit from this important programming. 

Friend of the show Kimaya Diggs has a brand new album out. Green shows a departure and a whole lotta growth for the artist and it’ll culminate with an album release show at the Academy of Music in Northampton this weekend. We’ll congratulate her in person with a live music performance in our studios and an exploration of the changes this third recording lets us hear. 

The Eric Carle Museum is exploring the work of its namesake through a wholly new lens that’ll also teach your littles about art history at the same time. We get a tour through Eric Carle’s Modernist Inspirations with new addition to their staff Rebecca Claussen, and get to see these works in context of other luminary work, then get to make some modernist art of our own, just like the cool kids. 

And word nerd Emily Brewster, has some excellent archaic choice words for those who have wronged us. We’ll learn new phrases for the villains in our lives from the senior editor at Merriam-Webster our dictionary in Springfield. 

In Amherst, one location is creating a full spectrum of agricultural connections through partnerships and collaboration. Amythyst Farm is a lot of things: A working horse farm, a budding nut orchard, and a produce farm, but at the core of this complex of land-workers is a look to ecology and biodiversity unlike what we’ve seen before. 

We meet owners Bernard and Patricia Brennan, both evolutionary biologists, and hear how their non-farm work has influenced their vision for what the land can become. We’ll also meet some of the horses staying at the farm with Equestrian trainer Mara Niefer, and hear about year 2 of Little Light farm from Emmy Smela, as we check out how these many facets of agriculture are woven together in this unique conjunction of functions, 

And in Holyoke a proverbial American dream is made real. We meet Xiomara Rosa, the new owner of the latest location for Bueno Y Sano, and discover her family ties to the franchise, the lessons she had to learn before getting to open her own shop, the impact the business has had on her perspective and more.  

If we managed to learn more about a besmirched side character in a literary classic, how does that shifting of frame broaden our understanding of the original work? In the new book Miss Bates by local author Catherine Cliff, we explore the life of spinster Henrietta Bates from Jane Austen’s Emma, and along with NEPM reporter Elizabeth Roman, we’ll plumb the work and the perspective it gives both to women and class struggles. 

Out west this weekend, the Berkshire Botanical Garden is hosting its annual Harvest Festival and right at the center of that is a Scarecrow Contest. Shakespeare and Company’s production manager and more, Erica Johnson, is building an entry that will connect the season with the bard. We learn about her creation and the campus’ upcoming Shakespeare Festival featuring 9 local school’s productions. 

And Mr Universe, Five College professor and Kainaat Studios’ Salman Hameed, celebrates International Space Week by giving more insight to the crowding of satellites into earth’s orbits, and the troubling experiment of putting data centers in the skies as more communities object to them being terrestrial. 

It's Friday and we find our studio filled with Americana legacy. Sam Grisman's notable father may have raised him on music, but he found his own way to the contrabass instead of mandolin. Over the years of his career he's rooted his sound in the innovations of his father, and the ambience of musicians that were regular guests of his upbringing. We hear from the bandleader with the current iteration of his eponymous Sam Grisman Project project before you can see them at The Shea Theater tonight. 

Earlier this week we got to show donors around the new artwork in our Building, but one of the coolest parts of that event was those donors and artists becoming part of a collective work as well. Helmed by the Eric Carle Museum, we'll head to their art-making space to chat about the collage that the community came together to create, which will eventually join the art pieces at our studios!

And after a quick derailing, level 2 sommelier and Franklin county wine friend Ken Washburn meets us at the Leverett Village Co-op to pit parent against child in this week's un-fancy Wine Thunderdome, a battle of the cabernets. 

The 2nd Stockbridge Munsee Homelands Powwow is taking place this weekend after an incredibly well received event last year. This iteration brings even more descendants of the peoples whose land we now live on to reconnect with the places of their ancestors. We’ll speak with organizers Ginger Stevens and Mysti Hammer about the start of this celebration, and what they’re doing to keep the connections between the present day peoples and the places of their past strong. 

And Congressman Jim McGovern sees the midterms on the horizons and has some very valid concerns about how they’ll go, so we’ll explore his fears about voter suppression and learn to whom the unopposed representative is lending his campaigning power, the unprecedented lack of work days for the house of representatives, his take on the new AI powered government site america dot gov, and the recent revelations on the catholic church here in Massachusetts including the diocese in his district. 

Today is full of archaic lore, which sometimes comes in the form of movement and sound. Flamenco Boston has been keeping their centuries old tradition alive in New England. The collective of dancers and musicians are performing today at the Holyoke Library with a stop by our studios to share their incredible artistry and learn more about this art form’s origins in the people's feet and on guitars far beyond Andalusia.

Last night NEPM hosted an open house to share the new local artwork we’ve brought into our building. One of the paintings on our floor depicts a unique landmark of Springfield that happens to be right beside the NEPM building itself.  We speak with artist Charlie Gould about the legends surrounding the house that sits underneath the I-91 highway, and what makes it a compelling subject.  

And word nerd Emily Brewster wishes us well with a dive into the language that emerged from the ancient beliefs and attributions of the four humours, and how such language ends up in more laughable places today. 

We’re heading to Wilbraham where a turn off a main road brings wondrous vistas and copious amounts of locally grown fruit. Fern Valley Farm is nearing its tenth year of bringing bucolic views and tree fruits of all sorts to the area, and we talk with the family that brought it back from disrepair, Dan and Brooke Fernandes, and learn more about the trees and varieties they’re raising, and the community that’s sprouted up in their newest venture:  Fern Valley Market. 

Plus just because the summer season is over doesn’t mean that Jacob’s Pillow is ending their presentations of dance and dance innovators for Western Mass and the world. They’re about to launch their 2nd ever fall season, and their incubator program The Pillow Lab is celebrating its 10th anniversary! We speak with Ex. Dir Pam Tatge about the lessons learned from last year and who’ll grace their stage in this one, as well as the impact having dedicated space to create can make for up and coming choreographers. 

And the Quabbin remains an important source of water… for folx who don’t live in western Massachusetts. And recently the Water Resource Authority has requested 20 million more gallons of water from the reservoir even in this time of statewide drought. We’ll talk to former director of the Water Supply Citizens Advisory Committee to the MWRA Lexi Dewey about the public hearing on this matter happening tomorrow, Sept. 30th, and the possible results of drawing from the reservoir while it is at record lows. 

Musician, writer, film and tv producer Boots Riley is headed to Amherst for a talk at UMass and a double showing of his movie I Love Boosters at Amherst Cinema. But his latest work is just the tip of the creative iceberg that started with rallies and hip hop group The Coup, and has several forays onscreen as well. We sit with the raconteur to talk about his activist upbringing and leanings, the roots of his film style, and the visions onscreen that can unite us all. 

Umass is also the home of the nations only collegiate translation center, and this Wednesday, Sept. 30th is International Translation Day. Edwin C. Gentzler Translation Center director Regina Galasso to talk about the center and the projects they’re working on, what they’ve got planned to celebrate on the 30th, and ways translation touch everyday life in the 413. 

And Mr Universe, Umass and Kainaat Studios' Salman Hameed, is celebrating the small science victories on UMass campus, and how the investigations of the Beppi Colombo spacecraft are letting us know more about the planet closest to the sun, and how literate it’s surface of craters is.