SEASON FINALE
Jul
20
6:00 PM18:00

SEASON FINALE

BYOB to Melville’s yard for the most beautiful evening of the year, as our writers-in-residence stand in Melville’s Barn and perform what they’ve been working on in the studios since July 1. Free and open to the public.

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MEET AND GREET AND CONCERT
Jul
14
6:00 PM18:00

MEET AND GREET AND CONCERT

Grab a burger and a beer and hang out for a brief performance by our 2023 residents—then get a chance to talk to them about their work. Our residents this year work across genres: novels, poetry, historical fiction, nonfiction, singing, songwriting, playwriting, and acting.

The performance will be followed by a concert by Eliot Lewis of HALL AND OATES! Free and open to the public.

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WORDS AND WORDS AND MUSIC
Jul
2
6:00 PM18:00

WORDS AND WORDS AND MUSIC

Our season kicks off at The Foundry with performances by multi-talented residents Danny Lavery, Elisa Gonzales, Auyon Mukharji, Kristina Gaddy, and Julia Mounsey, paired with wild and wonderful music. Click here for tickets.

Residents will perform fiction, poetry, theater, and songs in between short sets by Benjamin Jaffe, an international touring and recording artist whose songs have garnered over 10 million streams. A member of pop and country singer Kacey Musgraves band, Jaffe also recently released Enlightenment, a new record with Bill.E that sent him on a two month national tour. 

The evening wraps up with a performance by Vandal Flag, the side project of South County native Asher Putnam whose band Bella’s Bartok has become a staple of the northeast festival and touring scene.

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Party in Kellogg Park
Jun
13
4:00 PM16:00

Party in Kellogg Park

Children and families are invited to the FREE second annual Party in Kellogg Park! (44 Lincoln Street) on TUESDAY JUNE 13 from 4:00-6:00pm (right after school)!

  • Wood-fired pizza straight from SoMA’s pizza oven

  • Face-painting

  • Live music by Johnny Irion

  • Arts & Science activities by Berkshire Art Center and Flying Cloud

  • Short performances by Morningside Berkshire Theatre Group students and our Fireside students

  • Giant Letter Sculptures by Group-AU

RAIN DATE: Thursday June 13. Check back here for updates!

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GALA
Aug
6
6:00 PM18:00

GALA

10 years ago, we wrote our first grant to start The Mastheads in Pittsfield. Join us for our first gala, and support our programming and studios for another 10!

On Saturday, August 6, we’ll be in Herman Melville’s barn, with:

  • folk music from 6-7pm by Johnny Irion,

  • performance by Mastheads residents from 7-8pm,

  • dance party with DJ Senecca from 8-11pm,

  • lantern-lit explorations of the Mastheads studios,

  • pop-up bookstore by Familiar Trees,

  • and food from Berkshire farms.

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The Legacy of Modernism in the Berkshires and Beyond:  A Roundtable and Community Discussion
Jul
3
1:30 PM13:30

The Legacy of Modernism in the Berkshires and Beyond: A Roundtable and Community Discussion

In this public roundtable, scholars and Mastheads team members will discuss the art and literature of the Berkshires during the modernist period (1914-1945) and how modernist style continues to impact the region today.

We will hear Horace Ballard (Williams College/Williams College Museum of Art) on modernist visual art, Tessa Kelly (Mastheads/Arcade Works Architecture) on modernist architecture, and Jeffrey Lawrence (Mastheads/Rutgers University) on modernist literature. Alex Sayf Cummings (Georgia State University) will conclude with thoughts on the broader legacy of modernist style in the United States and how deindustrialization has changed the look and feel of the contemporary American city. The roundtable will be followed by a Q&A period and community discussion.

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Westside Poetry Workshop
May
20
7:00 PM19:00

Westside Poetry Workshop

Join poets Sarah Trudgeon & Don’Jea Smith on Zoom for a low-key poetry writing session. We’ll focus on themes of food, growth, neighborhood, and community!

Participants will have a chance to publish their work in an anthology produced by The Mastheads, and select poems will be featured in a short film about the Westside created by Tessa Kelly this summer! You can also read your poem at block parties at the Westside Riverway Park this summer.

So far this spring we’ve written poems with Westsiders, teens at Roots Rising, and elementary students at Morningside Community School. We can’t wait for you to join us!

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!

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Jul
19
3:00 PM15:00

Black Artists Who Found Their Voices in the Berkshires: A Talk by Frances Jones-Sneed

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER! We’re thrilled to partner with the Westside Legends on another exciting event. Dr. Frances Jones-Sneed is a professor of history and former Director of Women Studies at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams, Massachusetts, and she has taught and researched local history for over twenty-five years. Her talks are endlessly engaging, informative, and inspiring, and we can’t wait to listen. Q&A to follow! (This event will also be broadcast live on Facebook.)

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Jul
12
7:30 PM19:30

Community Writing Workshop 2

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER! Whether you write for a living or the last time you read a poem was in high school, this workshop is for you! Have fun exercising those creative writing muscles in an upbeat, friendly, intellectually-stimulating environment. Best part: at the end of the hour, we promise you’ll have written a totally competent poem (or two). For our second workshop, poet & teacher extraordinaire Chris Schlegel and Mastheads resident Sasha Debevec-McKenney will teach us how to use randomization and chance to spark creativity, including examples, prompts, and plenty of time to write (and share! Do it!).

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Jul
5
7:30 PM19:30

Community Writing Workshop 1: Haibun

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER! Whether you write for a living or the last time you read a poem was in high school, this workshop is for you! Have fun exercising those creative writing muscles in an upbeat, friendly, intellectually-stimulating environment. Best part: at the end of the hour, we promise you’ll have written a totally competent poem (or two). For our first workshop, poet & teacher extraordinaire Chris Schlegel will lead us on a haibun adventure, including a discussion of the form, examples, and plenty of time to write (and share!! Do it!!).

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Jul
1
to Jul 31

July 2020 Summer Sundays and More!

After our Kickoff Reading on Wednesday, July 1, we’ll host a literary Zoom event every Sunday in July. Be sure to register! Links are in the event descriptions below. Keep an eye out, too, for our Newspaper Folds in the Berkshire Eagle, our six Text Collage Billboards, and resident writing installed in essential Pittsfield businesses including Guido’s, Harry’s, Pittsfield Health Food, Carr Hardware, and Elm Street Hardware!

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10X10 Festival Reading at Methuselah
Feb
13
6:00 PM18:00

10X10 Festival Reading at Methuselah

For the third year in a row (!), in celebration of Pittsfield's literary past, present, and future, The Mastheads has asked 10 exciting local writers to read one short piece of their writing alongside a piece by a historic Berkshire author. Admission is free for this time-traveling literary revel, and food, drinks, books, and Mastheads swag will be available for purchase.

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Fireside Poetry Reading & Broadside Show!
Dec
17
to Dec 18

Fireside Poetry Reading & Broadside Show!

  • The Lichtenstein Center for the Arts (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

The very best poets are kids. At 10:00AM TUESDAY, DECEMBER 17 and 4:15PM WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, Conte and Morningside elementary students will perform their original poetry—not to be missed! In addition, students’ own photography and poetry broadsides will be on display through January 17. Refreshments will be provided on event dates!

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Community Conversation: Edith Wharton's "Summer"
Jul
20
2:00 PM14:00

Community Conversation: Edith Wharton's "Summer"

Grab a copy of Summer (available at Mastheads events & the Berkshire Athenaeum) and join our team scholar and professor Jeffrey Lawrence for a discussion of this Berkshire novella in which the young Charity Royall, born in the hills and adopted by an older man in town, falls in love with the New York-based Lucius Harney, an architect who has come for the summer to study the region’s houses (some things never change…). Jazz night follows, free for all Mastheads attendees!

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Westside Summerfest: Du Bois & Van Der Zee in the Berkshires
Jul
14
2:00 PM14:00

Westside Summerfest: Du Bois & Van Der Zee in the Berkshires

This July The Mastheads is taking on The Gilded Age, concentrating our programming on five cultural figures of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century: writers Edith Wharton, Henry James, and W.E.B. Du Bois; photographer James Van Der Zee; and Mark Twain, who gave the era its title.

On Sunday, as part of the Westside Summerfest series hosted by the Westside Legends, Dr. Frances Jones-Sneed will lead a discussion of writer and NAACP co-founder W.E.B. Du Bois and photographer James Van Der Zee in the Berkshires. Afterwards we'll party (of course!) with food and live music.

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2019 Kickoff Party
Jul
1
7:00 PM19:00

2019 Kickoff Party

Come meet our 2019 writers-in-residence! Listen to the writers read from their work, learn what’s in store for our summer lecture series, and grab a copy of The Mastheads Reader: Volume 3!

All events are free and open to the public. Refreshments provided.

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10X10 Festival Reading
Feb
16
5:00 PM17:00

10X10 Festival Reading

Once again, for the annual 10x10 Upstreet Arts Festival, and in celebration of Pittsfield's literary history, The Mastheads has asked 10 local writers across disciplines (poets, novelists, pastors, journalists…) to each read one short piece by a historic Berkshire author alongside one short piece of their own. Admission is free. Food, drinks, books, and Mastheads swag will be available for purchase.

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Tuesdays on the Terrace: Meredith McGill
Jul
3
6:00 PM18:00

Tuesdays on the Terrace: Meredith McGill

On each of the first four Tuesdays in July, The Mastheads will host a literary lecture on the lovely outdoor terrace of the Berkshire Athenaeum. For our first lecture, Professor Meredith McGill of Rutgers University will discuss the work of Berkshire writers and activists Catherine Maria Sedgwick and Fanny Kemble. 

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10x10 Festival Reading
Feb
15
6:00 PM18:00

10x10 Festival Reading

Come celebrate with us! As part of the 10x10 Upstreet Arts Festival, and in celebration of Pittsfield's literary history, The Mastheads has asked 10 local writers across disciplines—designers, urban planners, fiction writers, and poets—to each read one short piece by a historic Berkshire author, alongside one short piece of their own.

Readers include Liz Bevilacqua, Ezra Dan Feldman, Zack Finch, Tessa Kelly, Roberta McColloch-Dews, Sika Sedzro, Karen Shepard, Aaron Thier, Ted Thomas, and Sarah Trudgeon, and represented historic authors include W.E.B. Du Bois, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Herman Melville, Henry David Thoreau, Fanny Kemble, and more.

Admission is free. Food, drinks, books, and Mastheads postcards will be available for purchase.

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