Opinion
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From Call It in the Air
Waiting for the Sublime
By: - Oct 21st, 2026Joey was not feeling sublime about the essay. Especially since he was taking advantage of his role in Higgins’ history course by writing a paper on Samuel Beckett's play, Waiting for Godot. And despite having read a literary critic refer to the play as sublime. If anything, writing the essay was the opposite of sublime. Higgins had insisted he have carte blanche.
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Part III: The Burden and Grace of the Family Name
The Well
By: - Oct 20th, 2026The well was dug long before you arrived. Its waters are cold, pure, and constant, supplied by underground streams you cannot see. But the well does not draw its own water. The stewardship lies entirely in the unglamorous, repetitive daily discipline: walking the worn path, lowering the bucket into the dark, and hauling the weight back up into the sunlight.
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MCLA Theatre Announces 2026-2027 Season
Celebrating Collaboration, Creativity, and the Art of Storytelling
By: - Oct 20th, 2026Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) Theatre announces its 2026-2027 performance season, featuring six events that celebrate the possibilities of live theater through professional collaboration, inventive storytelling, student experimentation, and original performance.
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Berkshire Botanical Garden’s Arborist Day at River Walk
An Annual Event
By: - Oct 20th, 2026The event invites area arborists to take part in this day of pruning, removals and plantings in the peaceful and sensitive stretches of Riverwalk and Riverfront. Arborists will convene near the W.E.B. DuBois rain garden/kiosk off River Street at about 8 a.m.
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From Call It In the Air
Pape Station
By: - Oct 15th, 2026The book he was reading was This Way for The Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen: Tadeusz Borowski's numbing collection of short stories set in Auschwitz. Unlike The Triple Alliance, it was neither amusing nor speculative. It was fact. Disturbing and actual fact.
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Hermitage Artist Retreat Still Awaits County Repairs
Two Years Post Hurricane and No Action
By: - Oct 15th, 2026The prolonged delay is the result of a dispute between the county and the Hermitage – which has rented the property for a nominal fee since 2002 in return for caretaking and maintenance – over how those repairs could most expeditiously and economically be completed, and who should be responsible for making them.
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Lit Salon of the Berkshires
Hosted by The Mount
By: - Oct 13th, 2026he 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.
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Berkshire Botanical Gardens Rooted in Place
Ecological Gardening Symposium
By: - Oct 13th, 2026The theme for this year’s symposium, “The Living Forest,” focuses on the remarkable ecological, cultural and community connections that make forests essential to our lives. From carbon storage and climate resilience to tree health, forest management and the remarkable relationships between species, this symposium brings together ecologists, foresters, educators, and land stewards to explore what makes a forest a living, interconnected system and how we can become better stewards of it.
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From Call It in the Air
All of Us Walk Around Naked
By: - Oct 07th, 2026Joey is sitting on a hard Toronto Transit Commission bench, haunting the street-level terminus of the Pape subway station. He is shielded from the hot summer sun by a concrete roof, but the dry heat nudges uncomfortably through the open sides of the bus bays. He feels the sweat slowly collecting under his arms and on his forehead. It is after 11 a.m. He has occupied his spot on the bench since 10 a.m. Waiting. And reading—often the same sentence several times.
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From Holding a Mirror to Becoming Clear Glass
Not Blocking the LIght
By: - Oct 06th, 2026Clear glass does not hold onto what touches it. It does not reflect its own ego, nor does it block the light. It simply allows life to pass through completely unimpeded, revealing the world clearly without distortion.
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From Call It in the Air
Seeds of Respectability
By: - Oct 01st, 2026Two hours later Joey was still smarting from her response to his phone call. He was tucked up in the Maitland's office in an ageing, three-story walk-up on King Street East. But Joanna's words found him. ('I wish I didn't like you,' was the best thing she had said.)
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New Directions in Early Modern European Art: The Aso O. Tavitian Collection
Clark Art Insrtitute Symposium
By: - Sep 28th, 2026This one-day symposium explores current scholarship on early modern European art and is organized in conjunction with An Exquisite Eye: Introducing the Aso O. Tavitian Collection
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From Call It in the Air
The Obscene Woman
By: - Sep 24th, 2026Joey flopped down on his bed in residence. Joanna’s words prowled in his head; uncomfortably so, like sharp thorns every so often making him wince to temper the sting of their indictment. He knew that she was right. He did make scenes. He was impulsive. He did shout. He was crazy. 'I can't help it,' he had said multiple times in the long debate that circled and cawed in his head like a murder of crows.
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The Open Palm
Devotion Without Rigidity
By: - Sep 22nd, 2026There is a profound difference between dedication and obsession, between steady devotion and spiritual zealotry.
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Berkshire Botanical Gardens Harvest Festival
Began in 1935
By: - Sep 18th, 2026Each October, the Garden’s 24 acres are transformed for the region’s best-known end-of-season celebration. What began in 1935 as a modest plant and bake sale has grown into a beloved Berkshire tradition featuring family activities, live entertainment, regional food, artisan vendors and hands-on gardening and educational programs.
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BSO Launches New Program
Technology and Our Humanity
By: - Sep 17th, 2026The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) announces a rich array of humanities events to complement its orchestral programs this fall.
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From Call It in the Air
I Can Explain
By: - Sep 16th, 2026Call it whatever you like; fluke, fate; quirk; but there she was, less than twenty-four hours later, casually going about her business in broad daylight. Crossing the street. As if nothing could be more natural.
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MFA Celebrity Lectures
Ruth and Carl Shapiro Sponsored Series
By: - Sep 15th, 2026Join us for a series of exciting lectures that brings the greatest names in their fields through our doors. Hear from innovative artists, entertainers, musicians, and writers in an ongoing conversation with you—their audience—on stimulating issues in culture today. Chosen for their creative brilliance and fresh perspectives, these speakers share their vision, their working process, and their insights.
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Bangladesh Life Lessons
A Matter of Ethics
By: - Sep 15th, 2026In ethics, there is a clear divide between absolutism and relativism. Ethical absolutism is based in the belief that there is a singular universal moral standard across all peoples & cultures. Moral relativism, however, is the belief there is no universal or absolute set of moral principles, but rather that circumstances are culturally shaped, affecting choice.
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From Call It in the Air
Sometimes Events Conspire
By: - Sep 09th, 2026‘Joanna.’ Joey Couldn't believe it. 'My God! I'm right. It is her.' He ducked behind the Political Science shelf in the University Textbook store, snatching up the first book that came to hand: Federalism and the French Canadians by Pierre Elliot Trudeau. 'Joanna,' he said to himself, again, his mind racing, 'She's standing right over there. What'll I say?' He looked at his watch. Six days, three hours. Roughly. Too many days had passed for him to just say hello as if nothing had happened.
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The Courge to Be Permeable
By: - Sep 08th, 2026We had been sitting in comfortable silence for about thirty minutes. At not even five feet tall, she was a peanut of a woman, resting quietly in her wheelchair while I towered beside her. Together, we watched with great amusement as squirrels chased each other up and around the bark of the trees just outside her window.
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From Call It in the Air
What Do You Know About War
By: - Sep 03rd, 2026‘Dan Spear?' Gary drawled the next morning. ‘You gave them that name?’ Joey had opened his eyes, his head pounding under the double onslaught of an early morning hangover and the unshakable belief he would never see Joanna again.
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From Call It in the Air
200,001
By: - Aug 29th, 2026Saturday was "pure hell". After his unhappy telephone conversation with Joanna, Joey spent the whole day chasing up anyone who might know her number or address. No luck. If anyone knew, and he was sure a few women in her residence did, they were not telling
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Sarasota County Approves Arts Grants Without DEI Debate
Leaves Urbanite Behind
By: - Aug 29th, 2026When arts organizations in line for tourist tax grants were asked in July to acknowledge new diversity, equity and inclusion stipulations to receive public funds for 2027, most hoped the Sarasota County Commission would either provide more clarity or overlook the culture war issue.
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Further Ramblings on the Ordinary
The Joy of the Mundane
By: - Aug 28th, 2026We have been taught, from a very young age, to live from the outside in. We are handed a cultural blueprint that demands we construct massive, heavy monuments to our own egos just to prove we deserve to take up space. We use our careers, our titles, and our busy schedules as armor, terrified that if we strip them away, there will be nothing left underneath.
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