Lit Salon of the Berkshires

Hosted by The Mount

By: Mount - Oct 13, 2026

 

The Mount, Edith Wharton Cultural Center, presents The Lit Salon of the Berkshires, a new series curated by author Michelle Young (The Art Spy) that pairs literature with live music in an intimate, candlelit setting. Held at Barrington Hall in Great Barrington, the Salon is a unique Berkshire collaboration, and it feels made for the long, cozy months ahead.

The Lit Salon reflects The Mount's mission to bring literature, history, and art together to spark ideas, creativity, and connection.

"The Lit Salon harkens back to the Parisian salons of yore, where people of all interests and backgrounds gathered to discuss important intellectual and cultural topics that launched movements and often changed the course of history,” says Michelle Young. “Here in the Berkshires, The Lit Salon takes cues from those intimate evenings, bringing together literature, music and conversation, all inspired by the books and authors we feature.”

November features two exciting Lit Salon gatherings:

November 6, 7:00–8:30 pm: Marcia Chatelain with Chantell McCulloch
The series opens with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Marcia Chatelain, whose How Bright the Path Grows tells the untold story of the thirteen Black women who helped shape the 1963 March on Washington. Young will moderate, and acclaimed singer-songwriter Chantell McCulloch will perform. The evening will honor Josephine Baker, Rosa Parks, and Mahalia Jackson, along with Eva Jessye, who designed the day's musical program, and Anna Hedgeman, who pushed at the eleventh hour for a tribute to Black women's work.

November 21, 7:00–8:30 pm: Colin Asher with George Oldziey
Colin Asher, author of The Midnight Special: The Secret Prison of American Music, a finalist for the 2026 National Book Award for Nonfiction and an Independent Press bestseller, joins Young for a conversation accompanied by a performance from award-winning composer George Oldziey. American popular music often glorifies its rebels and "outlaws," but Asher reveals a lesser-known story: how the criminal justice system has shaped the lives, careers, and legacies of American musicians. The evening traces the history of twentieth-century incarceration, from Southern prison farms and the heroin-driven drug war that vilified a generation of jazz artists to the dawn of mass incarceration. Prisons occasionally incubate musical talent, Asher shows, but more often they cut careers short, constrain artistic lives, and distort the public's understanding of musicians and their value to society.

Details
The Lit Salon of the Berkshires is presented by The Mount, Edith Wharton Cultural Center, and curated by Michelle Young.

Events take place at Barrington Hall, 426 Stockbridge Rd, Great Barrington, MA.

Tickets are $20–$25 and are available at Barringtonhallgb.com

Michelle Young
Michelle Young is an award-winning, bestselling author and journalist. Her latest book, The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of World War II Resistance Hero Rose Valland was named a Best Book of 2025 by the New York Public Library, Library Journal, Hyperallergic, and Indigo, and a 2026 Massachusetts Book Award Honoree. The Art Spy was also a finalist for the Marfield Prize—The National Award for Arts Writing, and The Lambda Literary Prize and was longlisted for the 2025 American Library of Paris Book Award. Michelle’s work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Airmail, The Forward, Town & Country, and Narratively. She is a graduate of Harvard College in the History of Art and Architecture and holds a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, where she is a Professor of Architecture.

Marcia Chatelain

Marcia Chatelain is a Presidential Penn Compact Professor of Africana studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of South Side Girls and Franchise, which won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in History, the James Beard Foundation Book Award for Writing, the Hagley Prize for Business History, and the Lawrence W. Levine Award from the Organization of American Historians. An active public speaker and educational consultant, Chatelain has received awards and honors from the Ford Foundation, the American Association of University Women, and the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Chantell McCulloch

Chantell McCulloch, healing songstress, is a classically trained vocalist from Chicago, known for her commanding vocal agility and soulfully connected performance style. Her artistic credits include sharing the stage with Grammy-nominated artists like Matt Cusson, opening for Grammy Award-winning cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and Grammy Award-winning pianist Emmanuel Ax, and recording for PBS Kids and Sesame Street. In 2026, Berkshire Magazine named Chantell as a recipient of Berkshire 25 for her work around the county. Performing blues, jazz, and classical soul, her uniquely styled arrangements transform her performances into spaces of collective encouragement, hope, and healing.

Colin Asher

Colin Asher is the author of the critically acclaimed Never a Lovely So Real. His work has been featured in the Believer, the Baffler, the New Republic, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.  

George Oldziey

George Oldziey has had a widely versatile career as a performer, composer and educator. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Trumpet Performance from Manhattan School of Music and a Master’s degree in Composition from Texas State University. As an in-house composer for Electronic Arts’ Origin Systems, he created music for iconic video game series including Wing Commander and SpongeBob SquarePants. His extensive film credits include Spy Kids 2 and 3D, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Kill Bill Vol. 2, Sin City, The Grinch, and The House of Gucci. He also arranged Mon Laferte’s Latin Grammy-winning album, Norma. Currently, Oldziey is an Associate Professor in Screen Scoring at Berklee College of Music. 

About the Venue
Barrington Hall was founded by friends and neighbors Dan and Daniel, who share a love of live music, travel, and bringing people together. Their path led from Long Island to New York City and finally to the Berkshires, where they reimagined a beloved local venue as a welcoming space for weddings, retreats, and celebrations.

About The Mount
The Mount is a vibrant cultural center and historic house museum inspired by the life and work of American author Edith Wharton (1862–1937) set among her estate in Lenox, MA. Here, history, literature, and nature come together to spark ideas, creativity, connections, and cultural experiences.

Designed and built by Edith Wharton in 1902, the estate reflects her deep knowledge of architecture and landscape design, exemplifying aesthetic principles as she articulated in her 1897 treatise The Decoration of Houses and her 1904 text Italian Villas and their Gardens. During her years at The Mount, Wharton wrote some of her most influential works, including The House of Mirth and Ethan Frome, which continue to shape American culture. The property is a National Historic Landmark encompassing a restored house museum and stable, formal gardens, and 170 acres of publicly accessible parkland.

By honoring Edith Wharton’s legacy with contemporary programming, The Mount offers a place where past and present meet—encouraging inquiry, creativity, and dialogue across generations.