Today is about copious amounts of art we can engage.

We’ll head to the Hilltowns to an art enclave that’s been teaching craft for 3 decades. We’re smack dab in the middle of Snow Farm’s seconds sale and we’ll get a tour of their amazing grounds and anachronistically impeccable wares with Neal Bastek, Laura Stadtlander, and Keely Quirk and hear how you and maybe that art loving teen in your life can learn some of what they do also. 

In Easthampton, this years Pay It Forward grant cohort closes with Swazy, an up and coming producer, hip hop artist, and founding member of the collective Keep Us Alive, who’ll bring her curated show The Maverick Sessions to City Space this Saturday. We’ll hear from the artist about her journey to hip hop and the curation of the show, and from the grant program’s director Zoe Fieldman about their plans for next year’s program. 

Plus Word Nerd Emily Brewster, senior editor at Merriam-Webster is breaking open some bread with us. Bread words that is, as the March for the Food Bank is rapidly approaching and reminding us all to share ours. 

We are re-arranging the way we look at the world: through the eyes of youth, the tales of history, and the roots that get put down. 

We head to Smith College, where a class of 12 from all five of the colleges in the consortium have contributed to the exhibit Signs of solastalgia, which deals with each of the artist’s interaction with climate grief. We speak with a trio of the student contributors about the experience and their work that you can see through Nov. 22nd. 

It’s in the stories from here that are still being uncovered. Julian Saporiti a.k.a No-no boy joins us before he takes the stage at the Drake this evening, and explore some of the Asian diasporic American tales that have found their way into his music and beyond. 

And we’ll get a tiny little jump on the holiday season by heading to Ashfield as it’s almost time to get a tree, should you be one of those tannenbaum needing houses.  We chat with Seth Cranston of Cranston’s Tree Farm as they get ready to open their fields for the cutting and more this weekend. 

We are sorta playing 6 degrees of the Food Bank of Western Mass (although you’ll only need 2 for the furthest connection, honestly).

So we head to the Easthampton Community Center to speak with the folx feeding "Whoville" at one of the largest and most expansive food pantries in the area.As they give out turkeys for this year's holidays, we get the full scope of the center’s operations by chatting with some of the patrons, some of the volunteers, and the executive director coordinating all of it:Robin Bialecki

The Toys for Joy campaign has just started, but the program has a legacy that is over a century old and brings together businesses and people throughout the region. We chat with Major Donald Spencer of and Danielle Lataille of the Salvation Army about their goals for this year, how they’ve managed to adapt their services to the needs of the community, and how some of those services do indeed connect their offices with those of the Food Bank of Western Mass. 

And if we go just a little further out, we’ll learn how the folx rescuing fabric from landfills and bringing them to turner’s falls connect to the food Bank through the upcoming March. Because every year Monte needs a new costume to walk all 43 miles in, and every year the people at Swanson’s Fabric valiantly rise to the task. 

Today we're making interesting brushes with history. 

This Saturday at the Great Falls Discovery Center in Turners (Great) Falls, the Nolumbeka Project having a Beaver Moon gathering featuring author Angela Marcellino. Her book "The True Natives of Cape Cod and Their Foodways" explores her own history alongside that of the Mashpee Wanpanoag peoples who have resided in the area for millenia. We talk with her about the links between people, place, and food that create a lasting culture before you can engage with her yourself on November 16th. 

Live Music Friday brings Jim Hewitt of the Easthampton based Lost Film to the studios. Their wide ranging sound creates sparkly and brooding pop that is catchy but hard to put a finger on. In both cases, it's great for your ears and you can indulge that with the full band at the Dream Away Lodge in Beckett on Nov. 22nd. 

And our prodigal wine thunderdome returns to the site of its origins when we descent to the basement of State Street Deli, Wine, and Spirits to explore a contested area along the Italian/Austrian border where a super localized grape thrives on the land and in our glasses. 

Today on the Fabulous 413, we’re speaking is a gaggle of folx who are actively being the change they’d like to see in the world. 

Because book banning is hitting a little extra close to home this year, we’ll chat with writer and director John Tedeschi, whose short film “A Book By Their Cover" is getting a screening at the Triplex in Great Barrington tonight, Nov. 14th. The work’s core story is ripped right out of the town’s headlines from earlier this year, and we’ll hear how presenting stories like these are crucial to the evolving cultural landscape

And because equity is multi-faceted, we’ll head to Holyoke to check out the Holyoke Compost Hub. The endeavor is the latest from the Holyoke Food and Equity Collective and we’ll chat with Margot Wise and Neftali Duran about how this fits in with their many other efforts, and how you can learn more about all they do next week. 

And our returning US Congressman for the 2nd District returns to our weekly conversation where he’ll address several listener questions and the ongoing onslaught of recent cabinet appointments. 

If you are still wondering how did we get here, we’re about to speak with a group of students that have been covering it for NEPM.

We speak with the group that made up The Latino Election Project. High School students Evanni Santos, Halima Mohamed, and Ian Burger have been examining the national political landscape through a local lens this Autumn, guided by Julio Varelas of The Latino Newsletter. We get their take on the fallout from the fifth and what they’ve learned about themselves and the country by taking a micro view. 

We’ll also head back to Ashfield where their winter market is about to bounce into action. We chat with champion lettering artist Nan Parati, whose work you have definitely seen all over the 4 counties of Western Mass, about the beginnings of the market, her fraught journey to Ashfield and it's New Orleans connections, and about dancing your blues away at an event this Friday with the band Timeless. 

(And about how you can tell your food or foodways connected story onstage for CISA's upcoming Field Notes Event at the Academy of Music)

And Word Nerd Emily Brewster moons us with beavers and strawberries as the senior editor from Merriam Webster talks to us about the names of moons, and a couple of bonus astronomical terms!

Today we're seeking food for the body and soul as we head to where the internet fears to tread, and to where our region’s hunger needs are greatest

In Ashfield, a project exploring the life of artist Leonora Carrington is shifting and expanding for a new location and audience. Double Edge Theater’s current production “Leonora: La Maga y la maestra” takes a look at the surrealist artist’s life through the medium of her work, and we tag along with a gaggle of franklin county high school students to interact with this maelstrom of the earthly, the divine, the uncanny, and the very real.  Plus we'll let you know about a recent book that speaks with Executive Director Stacy Klein about the previous incarnation of this work, along with essays and conversations about Leonora's influence on other artists and authors including Tilda Swinton,  Samantha Sweeting,  Heidi Sopinka, and others. 

And in Chicopee, the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts is getting ready for its biggest push of the year. THE MARCH. But the day to day operations of the only food bank west of Worcester is much more than donations and distribution. We chat with Laura Sylvester Public Policy Manager about how edict can aid their mission to reduce and prevent hunger in western mass, and hear some of the success stories of their advocacy that might encourage you to walk some or all of 43 miles to help them in their mission. We'll also hear about an event in Boston on Nov. 13 where you can help the HIP program regain it's previous aid levels. 

Are we still reeling from last week? Yes

Are we still looking for ways we can affect change here to bolster community for whatever may come? Also yes. 

So we’re headed to Greenfield to take a tour of Stone Soup Cafe. The organization is multi-faceted in it’s approach to combating hunger and building community, so we’ll explore the kitchens and programs under the All Souls Church with director Kirsten Levitt, and Board director Whitney Robbins, to learn how they are teaching, supporting, and feeding the people of Western Mass. 

Also on this Veteran’s Day, it’s in how we are providing services to those who have served the country. Steve Connor, Director of Veterans affairs for Central Hampshire County, speaks with us about what they provide to those returning from military service, the needs of the office, and how the ways the public can help. 

And post election, Mr. Universe, Kainaat Studios and Hampshire College’s Salman Hameed, explores what it means for American Space exploration now that Elon Musk has been inserted into the conversation, including a possible shift in focus from the moon to Mars. 

We’re bringing you lots of things that might make you feel a little better. 

With the uplifting and resonant songs of Jake Klar for Live Music Friday, and we’ll learn about the movie he’s in and the famous gardener who once lived in his house before you can catch him this evening at the Dream Away Lodge in Beckett. 

And a well loved work making its way to the stage in updated context. The Valley Light Orchestra presents one of  Gilbert and Sullivan’s most popular compositions: The McAdo this weekend. So we head to the Academy of Music to check in with the company about adjusting this work for a modern time from its problematic original form, the appeal of the work, and how light opera fits into the evolution of theater with music onstage

And many of us may have felt the need for a drink this week, so we head to the women owned and operated Tip Top Wine shop in Easthampton to pit two Syrahs against each other with proprietors Lauren Clark and Miranda Brown. .

Because we may need a little help letting whatever will be to be. 

Alright, we’ve had a day to process, Now it’s time to look at what the landscape is and see where the changes we need can be made, and get prepared to make them

So today on the Fabulous 413, we’re speaking with the director of a new documentary that takes a very a la minute look at the issues concerning book bans, with a focus on three teens in South Carolina who approach the issue head on. We Chat with Filmmaker and educator Kate Way about “Banned Together” which is getting a screening at Bombyx in Florence tonight

We’ll also  look at shifts in the state’s efforts to ensure that everyone is fed. It’s just been announced that the Healthy Incentives Program (or HIP) is taking a big cut that will drastically reduce the benefits folx will receive across the commonwealth. But that cut adversely affects farmers too, and we’ll talk with the farmers at Northampton’s Tuesday market about the impact of the shortfall, and how you might be able to help. 

And our weekly chat with the recently re-elected Jim McGovern addresses the elephant that has recently regained the oval office, and the repercussions a second term for the 45th president may mean for the nation’s future.