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Woody King Jr.'s Federal Theater presents Octoberfest: Five plays that reawaken, inspire, and remind us of the struggle for freedom and dignity of African-Americans. Each piece, with its own history of previous production success, has been re-imagined. Billed as readings, seasoned actors and directors take us to a new form of theatrical communication in the “zoom style” medium.

Charles Henri Ford was America's first surrealist poet. He was also an artist, photographer, editor, publisher, diarist, filmmaker, painter, sculptor and world-class name-dropper. In the course of his ninety-three years he met everyone: Jean Cocteau, Dame Edith Sitwell, Paul Bowles, Salvador Dali, Patti Smith, Andy Warhol, Robert Mapplethorpe.

Marjorie Celeste Belcher was born in Los Angeles in 1919. She was known as Marge Champion when she married her dance and life partner, Gower Champion, in 1947. They had two sons and divorced in 1973. A resident of Stockbridge she was a familar presence at Berkshire arts events. She died this week at 101. Remarkably, she continued to dance into her 90s which became the subject of a short film

TheaterWorks is streaming live a production of Russian Troll Farm – A Workplace Comedy by Sarah Gancher. It is available through Nov. 2; the actors are performing from three different sites. It’s a coproduction with TheatreSquared of Fayetteville, Arkansas and in association with The Civilians.

Artist, geographer and author Trevor Paglen will present a talk titled “Machine Visions” as this year’s Plonsker Family Lecture Series in Contemporary Art at the Williams College Museum of Art. The free talk will be held at 6 p.m. ET Friday, Nov. 6, online via Zoom.

Mark St Germain's Typhoid Mary will be filmed in advance with the cast performing remotely. It will be available to stream on October 30 & 31 at 7:30 pm ET. The ever more timely play premiered at Barrington Stage Company in 2018.

In March 2020, Los Angeles-based artist Richard Nielsen began painting portraits of people in their COVID-19 face masks. On view at MASS MoCA, This is Not a Gag includes his first set of 49 paintings. Presented in a Zoom-like grid, the series shows the determination behind the eyes of artists, writers, and friends of the artist and MASS MoCA. The subject’s faces may be covered, but variations in masks and individual expressions speak volumes about our lives today. These paintings are not about the pandemic, per se, but about the fiercest and finest parts of human nature.

Howardena Pindell exhibits at the Shed. "Working on my commission for the Shed has been a very rewarding and healing experience. It allowed meto conceptualize an idea as a result of an experience I had as a child. I put it forth as a performance piece to a group of white women artists at the AIR Gallery where I was a founder in the early 1970s. They turned it down. I was the only non-white member of the gallery.

South Florida's Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre is presenting a scaled-down, virtual production of Camelot. The award-winning, professional regional theater company had planned to present Lerner & Loewe's musical live before the pandemic. Actors and technical staff shine.

As part of a $65-million campaign called Renewing the Promise: For the Public Forever, which is raising funds to implement the Gardner’s bold Strategic Plan and ensure the continued success of the Museum’s vision and values into the future, a gift challenges the Museum to raise $5 million in endowment funds by 2024. These funds will be matched 1:1 with a $5 million contribution from the anonymous donor.

Before covid and shut-downs, millions of viewers each year passed through the galleries at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art looking at Daniel Kershaw's stagings. He is a design star you’ve never heard of. As Senior Exhibition Designer at the largest museum in the United States, Kershaw’s job is to plan and build environments for up to a dozen shows annually.

The Tony Awards' presenters announced the nominees for the 74th Annual Tony Awards. The pandemic cut this past Broadway Season short. Alanis Morissette's musical, Jagged Little Pill, leads the way with 15 nominations. In the Play category, Jeremy O. Harris' Slave Play comes out on top with 12 nominations. A date for the Tony Awards presentation has yet to be announced.

After 22 years as a curator of the deCodova Museum, Dr. Nick Capasso, for the past 8 years has been director of the Fitchburg Art Museum. It is one of the poorest regions of the state. The community is 35% Latino and 55% of school children speak Spanish at home. The museum is unique for its bilingual initiatives and community outreach. There is diversity in all aspects of its exhibitions and programming. The museum shows New England artists. The collection has grown with an emphasis on photography, African, African American, and American art. Meeting daunting challenges the Fitchburg Art Museum is a remarkable success story.

Victoria Bond brings a distinctive, rich ear to her musical composition in many forms. A recent commission provided a chance to collaborate with Paul Barnes, a go-to pianist for both Bond and Philip Glass. Bond's Simaron Kremata is based on a Greek chant and opens with a five note melody which repeats.

Familiar Trees is a new gallery at 411 North Street, Pittsfield. There wiil be a reception for Franklin Einspruch on Saturday, October 17, 2020, 1-4 PM. The exhibition Half Step Half Fall runs through November 21. His Cloud on a Mountain is a book of comics poetry conceived during artist residencies in 2015 and 2018 at Bascom Lodge, at the summit of Mount Greylock in Berkshire County. Familiar Trees specialized in high-quality used books with an emphasis on art, poetry, and literature.

Broadway will remain shuttered through at least May 30 which will mark 444 days since all 41 theaters went dark due to COVID-19. Broadway officials have said that they project productions to eventually resume over a series of rolling dates.

I am the President and CEO of Ikavina Wine and Spirits, LLC and the brand-owner of “Wanna Be” Wines; the meaning has a lot more, just remember that Yahoo and Google made no sense at first. I am essentially the rebel of Black people in the wine industry, and I am one of few African Americans involved in importing and distribution.

Alan Watts once said that trying to define who you are is like trying to bite your own teeth; one of my Zen Buddhist masters used to say it was like trying to see your own eyeballs.

This past summer the artist, Ariel Klein, was in the thick of New York’s protests against the police inflicted murder of George Floyd. He was a resident of Brooklyn and its community of artists. His take on that is on view as “Rise Up” at the Eclipse Mill Gallery in North Adams.

Thinking Cap Theatre's leaders were determined all along to present Laced at the end of October. The political play's timeliness is hard to deny. The Ft. Lauderdale theater company is also presenting short plays to commemorate the suffrage centennial.

The 2020 B3 Biennial in Frankfurt/Germany will open with 'Hello Truths, Extravaganza Virtuale' on October 9 in the US East Coast time zone @ 4 pm and in Frankfurt/Main @ 10 pm. The festival will be concluded after ten days on October 18. More than 100 artists from 23 countries will participate in an array of virtual events.

Images Cinema, an art house in Williamstown. has been shut down going on eight months. Here is an update from executive director, Doug Jones.

In 1842, Edgar Allan Poe published one of his most famous stories, which turns out to be a parable for 2020. The Masque of the Red Death concerns a prince who gathers his wealthy friends within the walls of his castle when the Red Death rampages through the countryside, killing everyone who is exposed to it.

The Provincetown based conceptual artist, Jay Critchley, is known for wit and outrageous projects. Trump has him mad as hell and he can't take it anymore. Rather than just get mad he's getting even. His latest stunt it literally to tar and feather the White House.

Richard Curtis, masterful playwright and master of mystery, has produced a new creepy podcast series in time for Horror Season. Episode 1, You Have a Guest, is available now. A demon’s dozen disturbing audio dramas are conjured out of the dark imagination of this horror dramatist. .