The Fabulous 413

Today has a lotta music, and a little international flair

Tanglewood is getting a visit from folx who play some of the smoothest music around. The Yacht Rock Revue started in Georgia on a whim, but now brings the sounds of the late 70s and early eighties to stages worldwide, even to their original tunes. We speak with Nicholas Niespodziani frontman and multi instrumentalist for the band about the inspirations of these tunes and the spectacle they’ll bring to the Berkshires on June 21st.

Live Music Friday brings a brand new band polycule into the studio. The Golden Hours began as an immersive music experience, but has evolved beyond to be its own creative entity, a blend of the bands The Lowland Hum and David Wax Museum. We’ll hear a sample of what this sonicly-united ensemble will perform on the Iron Horse stage in Northampton on Sunday, June 14th. 

And the many games of the FIFA World Cup are underway, but perhaps you are as lost as I am on that front, lucky us, NEPM’s own Cara Foster is here to give us a bit of insight to the game and it’s global dominance everywhere, except the US it seems. 

It’s 413 Gives Day

So of course the fabulous 413 is going to double down on the goodwill of our neighbors coming together to support other organizations who also lost their federal funding just like we did by speaking with one more non-profit from the Berkshires who you may help. 

So we speak with the executive director of the Elizabeth Freeman Center, Divya Chaturvedi. The organization have been helping those who have experienced domestic abuse and sexual assault in the Berkshires with their ongoing survival for 50 years. We learn about their incredibly extensive programming that spans the entirety of the county, the ways they’ve learned to adapt to the needs of the community, and the ripples of impact they see relating to this loss of federal infrastructure. 

Then we head to Amherst to connect celebrations with history. Ancestral Bridges is hosting its 6th Juneteenth celebration this Sunday, and has discovered direct ties between the town, the Massachusetts 54th, and that holiday’s origins in Galvaston Texas. We speak with Anika Lopes, Deborah Bridges, Christina Miles, and Pam Tillis about the festivities and their discoveries.

We celebrate freedom for all with a Juneteenth event that brings all of the community together. Arise for Social Justice has been honoring the holiday with a free celebration connecting folx of all walks of Springfield life with music food and services they may need and more. Executive Director Tanisha Arena joins us to talk about the party they’re throwing, and her journey to this work. 

We’re also looking at the immigrant experience through fiction and firsthand accounts. Restless books has just published the award winning collection People who live alone talk too much which highlights the incredible intimate moments of immigrants interacting with American culture in New York, and we speak with author Sofi Stambo about the appeal of short fiction, and how it can connect these snapshots to something greater. 

And as pride month continues, we look at the language surrounding the LGBTQIA2S+ community itself with word nerd Emily Brewster, because those words have come as long a way as we have, and the linguistic history of Gay and Queer are just as fascinating as the times and folx they have represented over the centuries. 

Festivities are coming to downtown Greenfield for Franklin County Pride this weekend. This ninth iteration is bringing even more folx, music, and organizations together to celebrate the rainbow of identities present. We speak with Heather, Fritz, and Tolja about this year’s festivities and the impact that political climate has on their efforts to make sure the community stays safe and seen. 

We continue to highlight the organizations of our area for 413 Gives Day with Resilient Community Arts. Founded in the pandemic, the non-profit seeks to create more arts access and equity to kids, teens and their grownups across Hampshire and Hampden counties. We chat with director Maddie McDougall and youth coordinator Libby Keller, both of whom are teachers in their day jobs, about the impact they’ve seen the arts make, and the gaps that the loss in federal funding leaves. 

And speaking of pandemic shifts, Carrot Corner Farm came to be when one family moved from their boat on the coast to a vegetable shaped parcel in North Amherst, and we’ll chat with co-owner Eli Mior about his introduction to agriculture and the innovative practices they’ve been implementing

Today is all about communication and immigration, which, let’s not forget, does include the founding fathers. And the founding itself might not have happened if an intrepid young bookseller hadn’t taken some initiative to bring a veritable pile of weapons to Boston from a conquered fort in New York to chase away the British. 

Local historians have gathered together to map out more of Henry Knox’s course through the Berkshires east with 59 canons and more, and that information is now available in a new book released by the Berkshire Historical Society. We’ll talk with authors Bernard Drew of Great Barrington; Gary Leveille of the Great Barrington Historical Society; Rob Hoogs, Monterey Historical Society; Ron Bernard, Sandisfield Historical Commission; and Tom Ragusa, Otis Historical Commission about Ye Trodden Path and learn how you can celebrate the book's release with them at Arrowhead in Pittsfield this Wednesday June 11th. 

And we continue our highlights of organizations that you can help through 413 Gives Day by chatting with Caroline Gear, executive director of the international Language institute, who’s been with the school for 40 of its 42 years. We learn the principles of how their model was built, and the changes 4 decades have made in the institution. And Caroline gives us a glimpse of the impact the rhetoric surrounding immigrants and funding changes for education have made in their offerings and outlook. 

We head into the weekend with a little music, a little beverage, and some extra care for our community. 

The Green River Festival begins in just 2 weeks bringing artists from all over the globe to Greenfield for three days of incredible sounds and community. Oh and we’ll be there too. We speak with John Sanders of DSP shows and organizer of the whole affair about some of the musicians headed to Franklin County. 

In Old Deerfield, the Memorial Hall Museum is raising a pint to the Baystate’s history. Brewing Massachusetts is their new exhibit that looks at the lineage, legislation surrounding and culture of beer, brewing and alcohol in Massachusetts. We get a tour with curators Ray Radigan and Lindsay Kruzlic. 

And we start our week of highlighting organizations for 413 Day with 18 Degrees. Over its nearly 130 year tenure, the organization may have changed names, but remains true to principles of aiding families and children in the berkshires, and now in Hampden county as well. We speak with executive director Stephaie Sneed about her tenure at the helm, and the ways they’ve supported some of the area’s most vulnerable populations. 

Sadly, a wide array of local organizations and non-profits that provide an equally wide amount of services to the people of Western Mass and beyond have lost grants and programs just like we did, and this is our chance to help them like you our listeners have helped us. 413 Gives is a one day four county wide effort to help fill the gap made for many organizations by recissions in federal funding, because we weren’t the only ones who felt that financial cut. 

We’ll talk with the leadership behind these efforts: Megan Burke of Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, Kara Mikulich and Maeve O'Dea of Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, and NEPM’s own Matt Abramovich and learn more about how this collaborative effort helps us all. 

And our weekly conversation with congressman Jim McGovern sees a house resolution finally hit the floor, but brings up questions on russian sanctions and the US’ involvement in Lebanon, which is a stark contrast to the cuts simultaneously being made to WIC and SNAP, plus we get his opinion on AI oversight and regulation. 

This Sunday you’ve got an opportunity to see a new film by a Hampshire alum that explores a very American problem in a very unique way. Our Hero, Balthazar addresses issues of control, connection, class inequities and the endemic of school shootings through the eyes of two young men with very different backgrounds and takes on those issues and we’ll speak with screenwriter Ricky Camelleri about this dark but poignant movie, that'll get a screening at Garden Cinemas in Greenfield on June 7th.

We’re also exploring ways to connect humor to the dark times in one’s life. Grief: a Comedy has been a one woman show, a book, and next weekend  on June 12 & 13th at The Mahaiwe in Great Barrington, will be taped for a special. We’ll chat with the woman behind the work, Alison Larkin,  to explore her career in comedy, and the importance of laughter in the overall healing process. 

And Word Nerd Emily Brewster is taking the Mario® route, delving into the plumbing and across rainbow roads to see which is the original phrase of things that come down the pike, or down the pipe. 

The Tumble Science Podcast for Kids is hosting their Joke-Ha-Thon fundraiser after a difficult year facing the repercussions of federal funding rescissions. This year’s chuckle marathon competition will lead into a new pivot for Tumble’s creative team and we talk with Marshall Escamilla and Lindsay Patterson about this change and how well Monte will do against the other competitors

It’s the nation’s 250th anniversary, but what about that whole 150-ish years before we made it official? And where in that history do we see the peoples who were brought to the colonies as property? Professor Ousmane Power-Greene chats with us about the landscape of slavery in the north in the years before we were officially America for this month’s Power of History. 

And in Granby, two farms that have been friends for decades have merged. In the past year the folx at Mckinstry Farms has taken over the reins at Sapowsky Farm  as its owners retired. We head to their farmstand to chat with Steve Sapowsky and Bill Mckinstry about this arrangement and the past and future of the farm.

We’re exploring some of the hidden aspects of our communities. 

Novelist Tom Perrotta’s latest book Ghost Town is a look at the summer in a New Jersey town where the family of one young resident is forever changed, and how those experiences shape his future. We get into the specters and suburban spectacle within these pages before you can meet the author himself at Odyssey Bookshop Tuesday Night, June 2nd. 

In Northampton, some of the area’s folk music heavy hitters are coming together to raise funds for the Children’s Advocacy Center of Hampshire County. One of those folk stars joins us for an extra special Live Music Monday, Pamela Means, as we hear a preview of the music she’ll perform onstage at the Iron Horse and why this particular cause resonates with her. 

And Mr. Universe, Kainaat Studios’ Salman Hameed has a wide range of things for us to ponder including how pigeons use magnetic fields, the ongoing conversation about who else might be in this universe with us, and whether or not they have already made a visit to the blue dot.