We're celebrating Juneteenth everywhere all the times and with tons of family. We check out two of the celebrations happening in the area in Holyoke and Amherst. 

In Paper city, Genuine Culture is teaming up with the Wistariahurst Museum to create a celebration of the holiday for all on June 19th, and we’ll hear from Mother son team Theresa Cooper-Gordon and Damany Gordon of Genuine Culture and Megan Seiler director of the museum about this years Juneteenth festivities

We’ll also head to Amherst to check out a brand new space that is re-framing the context of local history in Amherst. Ancestral Bridges is bringing the black and afro-indigenous legacies and people of the town back into the spotlight through exhibits and ongoing research. Mother-daughter team and directors Anika Lopes and Deborah Bridges show us around their new space and talk about their Juneteenth walking tour and more. 

And word nerd Emily Brewster, senior editor at Merriam-Webster, our dictionary in Springfield, reaches back in time to an era where the American language was experiencing a parallel expansion to the nation itself. We explore 19th century americanisms in all of their manifestations of destiny. 

Today we herald poignant performances. 

Which includes an upcoming series of summer performances at Hampshire College.Silverthorne Theater Company is on the verge of opening the first of its two productions for the summer in Amherst, after a major shift in the structure of their season,  and we’ll speak with company members Ezekiel Baskin, Gina Kaufman, and Mayte Sarmiento about their two upcoming shows "The Amateurs" and "The Comeuppance", their ongoing mission, and "Theater Thursdays."

We’ll also get ready for next week’s holiday with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, who for the 3rd year have prepared a dynamic Juneteenth Freedom Day Concert celebration for it. We meet the three creative forces behind the program, conductor Kevin Scott, Director of the Extended Family Choir Kevin Sharp, and Director of the Springfield Symphony Chorus Nikki Stoia in addition to SSO President Paul Lambert about the pieces and community the concert will bring together this June 19th. 

And in Southwick, one of a handful of remaining farms is growing across a gaggle of greenhouses and 5 acres of land. Helmed by a mighty trio, Ray’s Family Farm has been bringing fresh produce to the region, and we speak with Heidi Brzoska and Sabrina Kannera, the base of this solid farming triangle, about this season’s growing, their unexpected crops, and the future of farms like theirs. 

Today is a family affair. 

We speak with director, writer, producer Llewellyn Smith of Blue Spark Collaborative, who has been making documentary films of all lengths and topics for over four decades. From Eyes on the Prize, to Poisoned Water, to Race: The Power of an Illusion, to his producing role in the PBS series American Experience, the filmmaker is no stranger to the platform that Public Media offers. Now helming an independent company, his latest film “When Machines Prescribe” offers a chilling look at the Medical system and the histories it holds that have devastating repercussions in today. We’ll explore the work he’s done inside and outside of Public Media, the future of the films he makes, and perhaps get a family story or two out of him because it just so happens, he's Kaliis' uncle. 

And Mr. Universe, Kainaat Studios and Hampshire College’s Salman Hameed, joins Monte to take a closer look at an exo-planet, that is moving in ways that are puzzling for such a system, including that the binary stars of its system seem to be co-parenting it, and what that means for us observing similar systems in the future.

Today, we have two tales of community celebration alike in virtue, where we’ll head deep into the Hilltowns, and get out on the river

A celebration of the once incredibly plentiful anadromous fish of the Connecticut River who are currently fighting their way upstream to spawn in northern waters. The inaugural Shad Fest happens this Sunday so we head to Holyoke to witness the fish elevator and hear about the incredible festivities with festival organizer Stephanie Moore. And a glimpse of the important role Shad has played in the area’s history and ecosystem with Andrew Fisk, Northeast Regional Director for American Rivers. 

We’ll also celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Westhampton Public Library opening with a collection of tales of people from the area about the impact of our foodways. The Hampshire County Food Policy Council is opening the exhibit “Sharing Stories, Creating Change", featuring a new story from a family that’s been farming in the area for 80 years. And we hear from Storytelling Circle Coordinator Kristen Whitmore and Community Story Archive Coordinator Alexandra Mello about the impact personal stories can have in our community and beyond.

Today we deal with matters of great importance.

Like the true nature of Hadley’s asparagus supremacy. We know that Hadley grass used to get shipped to the Queen of England, but how different is it from the spears grown in other western mass locales, or even other spots across the globe?

To get ready for our very own Asparagus Festival happening at the Hadley Commons this weekend, we bring grass from three different locations to the NEPM studios and conduct our own experiment to see if we, ourselves, can tell the difference between Asparagus grown in three different locations, including Hadley. 

And we’ll learn more about traversing the 91 corridor for a very good cause when Tara Brewster and Chelsea Kline drive by the studio to tell us how a VW bus and a donated bed are helping to raise money for the Cancer Connection with their fundraising event “Grateful Bed” 

Plus, a check in with congressman Jim McGovern who'll address the "Big 'Beautiful' Bill" in the middle of the room, a slew of listener questions about CPB, PBS, and NPR funding, ICE activity, and his own upcoming visit to the NEPM Asparagus Festival on Saturday. 

 We’re exploring all the colors of the rainbow, cause it’s PRIDE MONTH, ya’ll. 

The Queer Joy Chorus recently became the Queer Joy Collaborative and is celebrating its first year in their new incarnation. This Sunday they’ll throw the first ever Queer Joy Fun Fair with activities, singing, food, and more at Smith Voc, and we’ll chat with Mara Levi and Micki McInnis about the shift.

And in the Berkshires, an innovative incubating theater teams up with a NY theater company to tell lost histories in song. The Big Gay Speakeasy happens June 13th and 14th at the Adams theater and we speak with Adams Theater founder and artistic director Yina Moore and Life Jacket Theater Artistic Director Travis Russ about the production, their collaboration, and the music telling the tales of those lost. 

Plus word Nerd Emily Brewster digs into a listener question about poisonous words we don’t often get to use as we explore the similarities and differences of baleful, baneful, bale and bane.

Today we're talking about sweet things. 

Even when we’re talking about hard things to watch. This Saturday, The Triplex Cinema shows a special screening of the Oscar winning 1984 film The Killing Fields, which details the experiences of two journalists in Cambodia in 1975 at the beginning of the Khmer Rouge uprising. We chat with one of the stars of that movie who’ll be on hand at the theater for a post-movie Q & A, actor Sam Waterston. 

Plus it’s Pride Month, officially, and the pride celebrations are rolling out all over the 413. On June 7th you can join the celebrations with the 2SLGBTQIA+ community in Greenfield as Franklin County Pride gathers all for their parade and festivities. We speak with Cynthia Fritz, Jake Krain, and Heather Mahoney about all the celebrating through the rainbow they’ll be bringing downtown on Saturday. 

And its in jars, cause that’s where the jam goes. In Conway a passion project has become a whole career turning berries and other fruit into low and no sugar spread-ables. We chat with Devon Whitney-Deal of Beaumont’s Berries about her pivot from working corporate jobs and managing the Greenfield Farmer’s Market to picking fruits, and making jam.

(and if you're curious about the version of Technotronic's "Pump Up The Jam" that Kaliis mentioned, you can see it here, performed by Damien Robitalle)

Today we’ll give you two opportunities to engage yourself and enact or acknowledge the changes you’d like to see in the area and the world, and each is in its second year of operating. 

One of those is the upcoming Equity in the 413: Western Massachusetts Racial Equity Summit, which seeks to re-align efforts to advance racial equity across the region. We’ll talk with Community Foundation CEO Megan Burke and VP for People and Culture Briana Wales-Thaxton about the need and utility of this gathering especially at a time when diversity is slowly becoming a dirty word, and how the event has grown since its inception in 2023. 

Another is Glenmeadow where they are currently accepting nominees for their “Age of Excellence” awards, honoring folx over 60 in the myriad ways they impact our lives. Dr. Kathy Martin, President and CEO of Glenmeadow, and Rania Kfuri, Vice President of Philanthropy, speak with us about the place this holds in their organization’s 140+ year history, and changing perspectives on what aging looks like. 

And Mr. Universe, Kainaat Studios and Hampshire College's Salman Hameed, talks about the cuts to the NSF in the big beautiful bill, including it's repercussions for NASA, and what happens to the American scientific landscape when student and research visas are unavailable or revoked.

Today we have something lost, something gained, and something re-imagined. 

At the Shea Theater this weekend, a kaiju classic is getting a sonic overhaul as Cinemastorm presents an extra special screening of Noriaki Yuasa’s “Gamera vs. Guiron,” accompanied by a live soundtrack by local composer Galen Huckins and live foley by Jonathan Greber of Skywalker Sound. We talk with each of them, as well as the cast, musicians, and other performers involved in the production.  

A pair familiar to the 617 will soon find a place within the 413 as Boston Public Radio begins airing here on NEPM. We chat with hosts Jim Braude and Margery Eagan about what the eastern shores can bring to the west, and see what they know about the 4 counties of western Massachusetts. 

And many of us were shocked by the death of singer-songwriter/playwright/activist Jill Sobule earlier this month in a house fire. A series of tribute shows in the dates and locations she would have performed on her latest tour have been planned by her friends and colleagues coming together to fill those bills themselves. The first of these happens Saturday, May 31st at the Iron Horse in Northampton. For Live Music Friday we hear some of Jill’s songs and discuss her legacy with the host of the 413’s contribution to Jillith Fair: Erin McKeown. 

May is often when we think about the growing things. 

Including our youth, as they are our future, as they dance into new horizons in the School for Contemporary Thought’s first narrative work: Wonderland. We speak with the director, Jen Polins, about the company members blooming into the plotlines in their pre-professional company The Hatchery,  and the importance of inspiring young dancers to take up more space. 

 Also private gardens are being opened to the public are being opened to the public. The Garden Conservancy is  holding Open Gardens this week and next where many beautifully cultivated landscapes across western Mass, and the country, will be available for folx to peruse and enjoy. We’ll chat with Greenfield gardeners Elise and Laura Schlaikyer, and Sarah Chadwick, Regional Ambassador for Western Massachusetts at The Garden Conservancy, about this event which may inspire you to get your hands dirty, and how the non-profit collaborates with gardening organizations across the US, including the Greenfield Garden Club.  

Plus, we speak to gardner, witchy folklorist and author Varla Ventura about her latest book, “Enchanted Plants: A Treasury of Botanical Folklore and Magic,” before her event on May 31 at the South Hadley Public Library. We discuss the interesting tales the plants have to tell and the poison garden she raises at home.