The Fabulous 413

Local historian and linguist Wren Wood gives us a glimpse into the speech patterns of Herman Melville, Springfield Pride Parade founder and organizer Taurean Bethea divulges the evolution of the event as they gear up for its third iteration, and we get ready for the NEPM Asparagus festival by visiting the Smiarowski Farm in Hatfield, where that vegetable has been grown by all four generations of farmers stewarding that land.

Legendary fingerpicker and all around amazing musician Chris Smither joins us in the studio for Live Music Friday, we start our exploration of the origins of the Memorial Day Holiday and Black military history with Clark University Professor Ousmane Power Greene, and Table and Vine Ambassador Michael Quinlan brings three wines from his latest fixation to the Tina Turner Memorial Wine Thunderdome so we might taste a spectrum of Vermentinos.

We talk with organizer and founder of the Odenong Pow Wow, Justin Beatty, delve into the pages of a tri-literate children's book seeking to bridge cultural divides with translator Eliezer Nowodworsky and publisher Ilan Stavans, and our weekly chat with congressman Jim McGovern barely scratches the surface of the very publicly busy week he's had.

Our intern Cenai Collins spent his time with us working on a podcast idea. By the end of his tenure, he'd finished the first episode, and so we're sharing that episode with all of you! Congrats, Cenai, on your graduation from AIC!

We say goodbye to our intern Cenai Collins by chatting about his experiences with us, head to Colrain to chat with Justin and Katie Korby who have each won Good Food awards this year for their work in fermentation, and Word Nerd Emily Brewster drives us through the origins of words pertaining to traffic. OH YEAH, and it's our 300th show. Go us!

We hang out with the bovine brood at Mapleline Farm in Hadley and hear how the sister team of Jessica Dizek and Jennifer Zima are stewarding the location's 120th year of operation, then cross the mountains to Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams to chat with president James Birge about the ecologies of higher education, especially at a time when small college closures loom largely.

Mr. Universe goes to a UAP convention and tells us all the unclassified details he can, we take a walk around the corner to see how the folx at RAD's volunteer bike shop ar helping the community ride better, and talk about the real effects the Mass Reconnect program has had on community colleges with Springfield Techinicall Community College president John Cook.

So much stuff was happening we had to do a whole extra episode about it! We'll chat with the folx from Rachael's Table about their Outrun Hunger event in Forest Park, celebrate our families and ourselves with a new book from Leslea Newman getting a launch party in Northampton, and head to the Shea Theater in Turners Falls to celebrate some of the newest Americans with the program Immigrant Voices.

Erin McKeown and Spouse come in for Live Music Friday just ahead of their sold out show at the Iron Horse, we celebrate 20 years of universal marriage with a couple that was part of the lawsuit that made it happen, and head to Northampton to taste through Mary Taylor's catalog of wines in a thunderdome at Bottle-O.

We check out the only commercial poultry processing plant in western Massachusetts with the folx behind Reed's Farm in Sunderland, Word Nerd Emily Brewster zhuzhes up our vocab, and Congressman Jim McGovern talks about humanitarian developments, commencements in a time of wide protests, and more.

We broadcast live from the opening show at the newly re-vamped and much improved Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton. We're joined by the performers from the first official show, Rachael and Vilray, their opener Taylor Ashton, Parlor Room Collective Executive Director Chris Freeman, and General Manager Neal Robinson to celebrate the occasion, discuss the importance of the venue to the area, and peruse the litany of repairs and changes they've made to the iconic musical institution.

We delve into the history of the iconic Iron Horse on the eve of its official opening with a wide swath of folx who've watched its evolution, head to great Barrington to take a tour of a facility built by an icon at the Guthrie Center, and check in with the Americorps workers of the organization All Love, who are throwing a community Field Day this Saturday in Holyoke.

We chat with Mark Melnik of the UMass Donahue Institute about workforce disparity in western Massachusetts as the NEPM newsroom launches into a week-long exploration of the subject, local author and professor Naila Moreira celebrates the release of her new book "The Monarchs of Winghaven", and Mr. Universe draws parallels between the recent appearance of the Aurora Borealis and the protests at Umass.

We bring the Bay State's own bluegrass legend Peter Rowan to the studio for Live Music Friday, explore one of the oldest running quiz shows in american with Beth Ward host of As Schools Match Wits, enjoy a vertical wine thunderdome at State Street Deli Wine & Spirits, and delve into the work of the late Steve Albini with Time Eriksen and Peter Irvine of Cordelia's Dad who recorded two albums with him.

We're back from vacation with two troubadours from the valley teaming up to bring South American and Iberian guitar styles to the stage at the Parlor Room in Northampton: Tony Silva and Russell Brooks, we reconvene with congressman Jim McGovern to find out not only the latest shenanigans on Capitol HIll but his take on the wave of protests on campuses across the US including at UMass Amherst, and Monte shares what he did on his spring break vacation: talking with Smith students about their study abroad progam in Cordoba.

We discover the collaborative arts program OneBeat, whose current cohort will perform at Bombyx on Sunday, delve into our local history with the folx behind History Fest at Westfield State University, and the region's own labor history with the documentary "At Sword's Point" which will air on NEPM this weekend.

We hand out with rising Americana artist Amythyst Kiah, prepare for Hampshire Pride this weekend with organizers Clay Pearson and Alden Peotter, and check out the connections between animation and classical music with the upcoming program "Bugs Bunny Goes to the Symphony" at the Springfield Symphony Orchestra.

We hear about a paint recycling program happening this weekend with the Northampton High School Key Club, check in with Senator Elizabeth Warren about some of the hotbed issues on her side of congress, and hear about a monthly poetry open mic night at 10 forward to help keep the National Poetry Month spirit all year long.

We head to the Berkshires to meet a winemaker encouraging everyone to drink more local wines, bring the noisy power trio True Jackie in for Live Music Friday, and bring Mr. Universe in for our chat with the poet laureate of the USA, Ada Limon.

We hear about the Pay it Forward Grant Program with folx from City Space in Easthampton, get a peek at the History of Salsa Event Happening at 33 Hawley in Northampton, and Congressman Jim McGovern finally gets to do some actual governing on Capitol Hill while also keeping an eye on the grown number of protests on college campuses across the US.

We check out NEPM's Newest Podcst with creator and reporter Karen Brown, find out more about Gateway City Arts recent sale to Alternative Education institution Lighthouse, and our resident wordster, Emily Brewster, untangles a reder question about homonyms.

We meet two of the three generations growing and brewing at Kosinski Farm in Westfield, get a tour and a temperature of the recently re-opened to the public Triplex Cinemas with creative director Ben Elliot, and walk to the beat of the Pittsfield Jazz Fest with Ed Bride of Berkshires Jazz.

We take a tour of the Springfield Municipal Recycling Facility with advisory board members Susan Waite and Amy Donovan in honor of Earth Day, and stumble into a brand new gem of a pizza spot in Great Barrington at Uva.

We chat with Payton Shubrick of 6 Bricks Dispensary in Springfield about changes to the marijuana landscape in Massachusetts, chat with Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black about the debut of the Spiderwick Chronicles TV series on Roku, and hear about Mary Jane Jones' 4/20 celebration at the Marigold Theater in Easthampton.

We chat with actor/director/producer Karen Allen about her career and more, head to Hadley to see the 50+ years of history that makes 20 Acre Farm what it is, and check in with US Rep Jim McGovern, who has a lot on his mind this week.

We hear about the history of the Solar Rollers and the wave of rallies and actions they've got planned for Saturday, and hear from poet Alex Woolner about the many ways her imprint Attack Bear Press is trying to get as much poetry into as many hands as possible.

For the first time ever in the show’s history, we are venturing outside the four counties of western Massachusetts. But the ties of the 413 are still strong in the places to which we’re headed. Restless Books in Amherst will release “The Book Censor’s Library” on April 30th; a speculative fiction novel that wrestles with a wealth of issues relevant to any democracy in crisis. Author Bothanya Al-Essa speaks with us about this, the only book of hers that has not been banned in her home country of Kuwait, about the real life parallels to the book, how opening a bookstore in a nation with only-recently-lessened censorship has been, and the love of literature that has lead to each. And we head south to the home of the author of one of the most well-known pieces of abolitionist fiction. The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center in Hartford, CT is about to launch a new summer series with it’s event “Garden of Literacy” this weekend. So we chat with executive director, Karen Fisk, director of collections & public programs Cat White, and newly appointed director of interpretation & visitor experience Erika Slocumb, all of whom currently or very recently lived in the 413, about the center’s mission of literary activism, how engaging their community in history can invigorate an area’s civic base, and all the fun things they’ll be getting up to this Saturday in their new event series.

We gear up for the Easthampton Film Festival with organizer Chris Ferry and filmmakers Christian Banda & KT Baldassaro, bear witness to and diseminate the newest verstion of the one character show "SUGA" at Double Edge Theater, And Mr. Universe breaks down what we really got to see during the eclipse.

We hear about the newest iteration of theater production "Across the Ninefold River" with members of the Unnameable Children's Project, gear up to celebrate 4-1-3 day with Liz Rosenberg of The Toy Box in Amherst, prepare ourselves for the tales of Valley Voices Best of show happening at the Academy of Music, and bring two natural reds to the wine thunderdome at the Leverett Village Co-Op.

NYT Bestselling author/illustrator/animator Mo Willems shows us around his latest series of sketches, visit one of the largest livestock farms in western Mass at Great Falls Aquaculture, and Congressman Jim McGovern addresses the latest wave of student activism and the health care issues arising in Arizona.

We hear about the "this Light of Mine" event for the Childrens Advocacy Center of Hampshire County, discover a new book about the boy from Longmeadow who would become Johnny Appleseed with local author Melissa Cybulski, discuss developments with Merriam-Webster and the idiom "Begs the question" with word nerd Emily Brewster, and revisit our trip to the path of totality with all of it's adventurous moments.

It’s National Poetry Month! And what better way to celebrate than at the home of the area’s most famous, and possibly most prolific, poets! So we get a quick tour of the Emily Dickenson Museum. Located right on Main street in Amherst, the institution has just re-opened the Evergreens building to the public. We chat with Executive Director Jane Weld and Senior Programs Director Brooke Steinhauser to not just give us a taste of the poet’s life, but a brief history of the grounds becoming a museum, as well as why having the public bear witness to the restorations occurring is vital. One of the many programs that the museum offers is Phosphorescence: a program that evolved during the pandemic to showcase contemporary authors reading their work and more. We bring three poets who have participated in the museum to speak with us as well. Nicole Young Martin, Erica Charis Molling, and Abigail Chabitnoy each allow us to hear more of their work both on and off the page.

One would think that in a week were we had an unseasonably large nor’easter and an earthquake that we might be a little wary of finishing the time with a total solar eclipse. But it is also the last time this phenomena will be in New England until 2079 so there’s also little else we are thinking of, portents and precidents aside. So Mr. Universe, Hampshire College’s Salman Hameed, clues us into some of the big discoveries in science that have only been possible due to research conducted in the small window of an eclipse, including Einstein’s theory of relativity, the discovery of helium, plus some of the things we might learn from the one happening today. Word Nerd Emily Brewster, senior editor at Merriam Webster, brings us words adjacent to the eclipse, including some idioms related to the heavenly body, and also makes us a bit sad with the origins of the word itself. And we get into a great resource for your kids to discover the occurrence as well. Lindsay Patterson and Marshall Escamilla found out all kinds of cool things about eclipses for their most recent episode of "Tumble: Science Podcast for Kids", including their song about it, and as a bonus hear about their upcoming episode about the confluence of Cicadas, another once in a lifetime event. And Monte and Kaliis took the day to go to the path of totality themselves. It was a bit of an unexpected adventure, but was it worth it? Totally.

We check in with the folx of the Cancer Connection at their Bed-In, drink superhero wines with the folx at Tip Top Wine Shop in Easthampton, and have a double Live Music Friday with locals Stompbox Trio, and Lady Moon & the Eclipse

We delve into the virtual worlds designed for this weekend's Power of Truths Festival with designer Khalif Neville, hear about pushing the boundaries of chamber music with the folx behind the Connections Concert at Bombyx this Sunday, And McGovern ponders what to do about Israel after the tragedy with World Central Kitchen

Caroline Rose joins us for a check-in before the second night of their residency, Diane and Robert Rollins tell us of the long road to bringing produce and poultry to the region at D & R Farms, Dave Hayes updates us on the slightly unseasonable sky-goings-on, and Word Nerd Emily Brewster sets time markers on our vocabulary with Retronyms.

We speak with State Senator Jake Olivera about some of the many issues on his agenda and his love of NPR, and we hear about the amalgam of art, history, and education that will make up the third Power of Truths Festival.

We hear about the $2M gift received by CATA, explore laughter in the 413 with the folx from Happier Valley Comedy, and Mr. Universe tells us about a western Massachusetts tie to eclipses though Emily Dickenson.

The weekend is a great time to explore. So we’ll encourage you to experience the full gender spectrum and support those on their gender journeys with the Resource and Arts Fair presented by Translate Gender on Sunday, March 31st. It’s not just celebration of the Transgender Day of Visibility, but a way to bring communities together for some of the gender affirming needs they may not have access to on a regular basis or be comfortable pursuing in a more public setting. We chat with co-director of Translate Gender, James Shultis and our own digital producer for The Fabulous 413, Ayu Suryawan, who often volunteers with them, about the organization’s mission, and the need to have space to just be you with no strings or qualifiers can be important to youn trans person growing up as well as their caretakers. Live Music Friday brings the genre malleable, raucously engaging Bella’s Bartok to the NEPM Studios. They’re performing March 30th at The Drake in Amherst, for their first hometown show of the year. We chat with them about their origins, the shift in sound on their latest album, “Apocalypse Wow”, and their efforts helping to raise funds to aid a friend of theirs escape the conflict in Rafah. And we’ll get a spectrum in our glasses as well. We head to Provisions in Longmeadow where owners Benson Hyde and Bruce McAmis show us the range of flavors possible in Italy, as we pit a north against south for our Wine Thunderdome, not to mention a preview of what can be experience at their Italian Wine Festival later this month

Word Nerd Emily Brewster doubles down into the history of the word "ditto", the MIFA Victory Players combine the music of Amy Beach and the poetry of Emily Dickenson in a program that will air on NEPM Classical this weekend, we learn about the first woman to play professional baseball with author Martha Ackmann, and Congressman Jim McGovern bemoans our inability to truly hear each other and have discourse.

It’s a triumphant return of the arts. Not that they ever left per se, but we are packing a bunch into this show. And honestly that return wasn’t certain in some cases. The strike of the UAW at Mass MoCA as events and festivals planned at that institution loomed ever larger on our calendars had everyone wondering what the future might hold for the museum. But as we check in with NEPM Reporter Jill Kaufmann, we discover that progress is indeed being made; not just in North Adams but in Holyoke with their receivership as well. It’s in an author making a visit to the valley to celebrate a new book. Ayize Jama-Everett has a storied career to be sure. He’s currently touring a documentary he’s co-produced on the use of psychedelics in the Black community, but making a stop in Easthampton at Book Moon on March 28th to celebrate the release the final book in his “Liminal” series. We speak with the man of many hats including author/professor about self starting his literary career, his inspirations, and connecting the future with history in all of his works. And it’s in a creative rejuvenation as well. The Springfield Symphony Orchestra has just created a new position of Artistic Advisor, and the first to hold that title will be Mei-Ann Chen. We speak with the maestra as well as president and CEO of the SSO, Paul Lambert, about her previous work with the symphony, what this means for the direction and development of the organization, and her call to conducting.

There’s a lot in our pasts in which we are seeing merit. For instance the Szymonik family who stepped away from their past lives in the early stages of the pandemic to seek something a little more connected to the land. And where they landed is Granby on the grounds of Deere Creek Farm. We speak with Naomi Szymonik about the intense diversity at the farm, from livestock, to flower CSAs, to event space, and why their various roads to agrotourism make their endeavor more sound. The Biden Administration has just issued new tailpipe pollution limits that could transform the automobile market. But is this too little too late, and will it have a greater impact on the current auto industry than believed? As the driver of an electric car, Monte speaks with professors Dwayne Breger and Erin Baker of UMass, as well as the institution’s director of transporation, Connie Englert, about how they see the present of electric cars shifting into our future, in Western Mass and beyond. And Kaliis is back from galavanting in Knoxville, Tennesee. We’ll ask how her schedule at the Big Ears Festival went, highs and lows and what she actually thought of seeing Andre 3000’s flute playing live.

We’ll hear from the Massachusetts Farm to School panel with Irene Shiang Li, food justice advocate and co-founder of Mei Mei Dumplings in Boston; Shavel’le Olivier, the executive director of Mattapan Food and Fitness Coalition; and Easthampton’s Ollie Perrault, a seventeen year old climate activist, farmer, director of Youth Climate Action Now, and founding member of Maura Healey's advisory Youth Climate Council. These folx are here to tell us more about bringing fresh food and food education to our local communities. Plus, we invite western Massachusetts author Karen Chase to talk about her new book “History is Embarrassing.” We hear about the writing process and the importance of retelling history, public or private, through diverse and personal perspectives, even when it’s embarrassing! And, we’ll explore the cosmos with Mr. Universe! There have been talks to build a railroad on the moon, and Hampshire professor Salman Hameed tells us who would do it and why.

We are joined by the resident Swiftie and director of science at the Springfield Museums, Jenny Powers, to talk about the new planetarium show to feature “1989 -Taylor’s Version” every Saturday afternoon from Mar. 23 to May 18. For this week's Thunderdome, we join Michael Quinlin at Table and Vine to taste the “sun, stone, sea, and wind” of the Mediterranean. We choose which bottle best captures the power of the region's warm waters and sunshine. And, it’s Live Music Friday and we welcome rapper, podcaster and graphic novelist Tem Blessed ahead of his gig at the Drake in Amherst tonight. We hear about his message of social justice and sustainability to inspire positive change and global responsibility.

The Fair Housing and Civil Rights Conference brings together people who share a commitment to protecting and furthering the rights of all Americans, both regionally and nationwide. We invite conference hosts John Fisher, fair housing coordinator for Way Finders, and Shaundell Diaz, entry coordinator for Three County Continuum of Care, to tell us more about the conference and how folx can come together to effectuate change on both a local and national level. Tonight at 9, NEPM TV will air a new documentary, “Where I Became,” that explores the personal journeys of a group of Smith students who left their homes in South Africa to pursue their dreams. We are joined by those alums, Jane Dawson Shang ‘82 and and filmmaker Council Brandon, who is also a Smithie, to tell us more about the film. And, we’re McGoverning with Rep. Jim McGovern and he touches on the end of the occupation of his Northampton office, his face to face with the president on St. Patrick’s Day, and whether or not the government shuts down this weekend.

All the world’s a stage. Or at least a select part of Montague Massachusetts is a stage. At least for the next 3 weeks. The first ever Montague Shakespeare Festival descends upon The Shea Theater and working with the famous Royal Shakespeare Company, this is such stuff that dreams are made on for fans of The Bard. We’ll hear all about the method to the madness of The Montague Shakespeare Festival from Executive Director Kenny Butler and from Fiona Ross from The Royal Shakespeare Company Word Nerd Emily Brewster needs your help in coming up with a word for a category of words that she’s been investigating where the poetic meaning of these words predates the prose And we’ll hear about how to support local journalism when we talk with two Report for America journalists-The Springfield Republican’s Greta Jocem and NEPM’s Nirvani Williams

It’s more than just legacy that we discover by looking at the past. Sometimes, we see a way forwards. What started as an orchard in 188, evolved into a retail market in 1962, and has continued to expand into what we now know as Atkins Farms Country Market. Although the original orchard is no longer attached to the retail store, the location is still dedicated to providing local produce and prepared foods to meet the needs of the community. We chat with the Jen Adams, Andy Ladas, and Kelly Lannon about building a healthy work community, the importance of connecting with local farms, and the power of cider donuts. Occasionally, it reveals things we missed. Local historian and archivist for Springfield Museums Cliff McCarthy drop by the studios to tell us of more Black figures from Western Massachusetts history including Aaron Nazro and the League of Gileadites, and give some insight how you too could become part of the process to make these hidden figures in time more visible to more folx. If we’re lucky, those looks through time take us much further than we would have believed. Such is the case at Downtown Sounds in Northampton, where a chance appraisal of an old Martin Guitar lead Aaron Borucki through more channels in American luthier history than he could have imagined. We talk with him about the cascade of discoveries he encountered surrounding the 1868 instrument, and what impact learning about the guitar has on his outlook as well as the store’s.

Sometimes it feels like we’re making our own adages about things being lost and found. In the instance of Mr. Universe, Hampshire College’s Salman Hameed, it’s with the ongoing question of extraterrestrials and whether they’ve visited us or not. The Department of Defense has recently released a paper on this subject with perhaps disappointing results depending on which side of this coin one finds themselves on. We look at how those findings might fit with the bigger picture of speculating on life in the cosmos. Where Holyoke is concerned, its in a housing project forgotten over the years. We speak with local historian and PhD candidate Erika Slocumb about her podcast “Drawing Liberty Park from Memory” where she speaks with folx from the local black community about the Liberty Park Housing Project, a federal initiative that became the only public housing that allowed black people to live within it. Through that lens we’re able to discover more about all of our communities and the traces that they leave over the years. And it’s being found in the changing of hands. The Kitchen Garden Farm has seen a shift in leadership, where two of the longtime workers have now taken over the operation. We head to Sunderland to talk with Max Traunstein and Lilly Israel about the triumphs and challenges of stepping into their new roles as owners, including a bit of fundraising they’re doing to help with the closing costs for the endeavor. And then of course, we have to see how the giardinera gets made, because it’s too delicious not to do so.

We get another glimps of the Back Porch Festival with Rani Arbo & Daisy Mayhem who'll perform twice in the event's run, check out the new tanglewood season with conductor of the Boston Pops Keith Lockhart, and make the wine thunderdome into a battle of north vs. south with white burgundies at State Street Deli, WIne & Spirits.

We hear about Emily Dickenson's Irish connection with Rosemary Caine and folx connected with her work "Margaret Maher and the Celtification of Emily DIckenson", talk tree gold with the MAssachusetts Maple association president Keith Bardwell in Whately, check in with congressman Jim McGovern about Capitol Hill and the recent "visitors" to his office, and eat pie, because it's Pi Day.