Hancock Shaker Village

A Special Invitation Sunday August 30

By: Jennifer Trainer Thompson - Aug 26, 2020

 

Dear Friends,

Let’s enjoy one beautiful night of words and music — a reprieve — as six extraordinary people come together to thank our essential workers. We hope you’ll join us (virtually!) this Sunday, August 30 at 7 pm  when we present a concert of five musicians who will honor us with their music, and one former governor of Massachusetts who will inspire us with his words: Anjimile, Emanuel Ax, Billy Keane, Chantell McFarland, and Yo-Yo Ma, joined by Deval Patrick. Live from Hancock Shaker Village: Songs of Comfort will be broadcast live on WAMC and streamed online or on the WAMC app. Essential workers in the Berkshires have been invited to attend this small live performance — from teachers to nurses, firefighters to farmers, police officers to grocery store workers, food bank volunteers and beyond — and you can listen too, thanks to WAMC. 

Our goal is to create a night of inspiring words and music, to thank the essential workers who sustain us. It’s an evening about resilience, and hope. As Yo-Yo Ma said: “Music, like all of culture, helps us to understand our environment, each other, and ourselves. Culture helps us to imagine a better future…And these things have never been more important.” This is our thank you — from us and five extraordinary musicians — to those workers and first responders who have taken great risk to keep us as safe as possible. A brief evening of joy from a Shaker village that lived local, valued community, and practiced equality and generosity among neighbors for over 200 years. Those living in the Berkshires have seen tough times before. Years ago, after a particularly harsh winter, when starving neighbors started stealing the Shakers’ vegetables, their response was: “Next year we need to plant another row.”

Tune in Saturday. Let’s plant a row. Have fun listening. (You can learn more about the artists here.)

Yours

Jennifer Trainer Thompson