Lenox - Rita Dove, Pulitzer Prize winner and former United States Poet Laureate, will read from her poetry at The Mount on August 5 as part of the second annual Amy Clampitt Poetry Series.
Dove is the author of eight collections of poetry, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Thomas and Beulah (1986) and American Smooth (2004), her most recent. She is also the author of Fifth Sunday (1985), a book of short stories, the novel Through the Ivory Gate (1995), and the play The Darker Face of the Earth (1992), which has been produced at the Kennedy Center, the Royal National Theatre in London, and other theatres. Her song cycle Seven for Luck, with music by John Williams, debuted at Tanglewood in 1998. She is the editors of Best American Poetry 2000 and wrote "Poet's Choice," a weekly column for The Washington Post, from 2000 to 2002.
Dove served as Poet Laureate of the United States and Consultant to the Library of Congress from 1993 to 1995 and is currently Poet Laureate of Virginia, where she is Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia. Her many literary and academic honors include the 2003 Emily Couric Leadership Award, the 2001 Duke Ellington Lifetime Achievement Award, the 1997 Sara Lee Frontrunner Award, the 1997 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award, the 1996 Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanities and the 1996 National Humanities Medal.
The August 5th program also will include a brief overview of Amy Clampitt?s life and work by Willard Spiegelman, editor of The Letters of Amy Clampitt, published by Columbia University Press spring of 2005. Spiegelman is the Hughes Professor of English at Southern Methodist University and editor-in-chief of The Southwest Review.
Dove's reading follows last year's successful inaugural reading for the Amy Clampitt Poetry Series. This series is named in honor of the poet Amy Clampitt, who wrote prolifically from her Stockbridge, Mass. cottage until her death in 1994. The series is underwritten by the Amy Clampitt Fund, established in 2001 by Clampitt?s late husband Harold Korn to benefit poetry and the literary arts, and is managed by Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation.
The Amy Clampitt Poetry Series will be held at 4 pm at The Mount on August 5. Tickets are $12 and $6 for students with ID. For tickets or more information, please call (413) 637-1899 or visit www.edithwharton.org http://www.edithwharton.org/.
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Pittsfield Council Passes $232.7M Budget
By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The City Council unanimously approved a $232.7 million budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
It is a modest, almost 2.9 percent increase from FY26.
"I do want to give the community kind of a heads up as we move forward on budgets. What we see coming out of the federal government that's trickling down to the states, it's going to be harder and harder for us as a community to meet our needs under the Proposition 2 1/2," Councilor at Large Alisa Costa said.
"We're going to have challenges, as we've seen communities across the state trying to override the Proposition 2 1/2, because we have dwindling amounts of money coming from the state and federal government."
She pointed out that, at the same time, utility bills are going up for both residents and the city, as are the costs of pavement and other items.
The amended budget of $232,777,720, down from the $232,782,090 originally proposed, includes cuts to the Department of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and the restoration of funds for councilors to attend the annual Massachusetts Municipal Association conference.
The Pittsfield Public Schools' $86,855,061 budget includes $68,886,061 in state Chapter 70 funding and $18 million from the city. With $345,000 in school choice and Richmond tuition revenues, it totals $87,200,061 and is an approximately $300,000 increase from the Pittsfield Public Schools' FY26 budget of $86.9 million.
The district's budget will fund 13 schools, as Morningside Community School will retire in the fall, and includes the middle school restructuring.
Councilors also approved the use of $2 million in certified free cash to reduce the tax rate, and appropriated $450,551 for parking-related expenditures.
Cassidy Flynn scattered five hits in a complete-game effort in the circle as Lenox upset top-seeded Hoosac Valley, 3-2, in the quarter-finals of the Division 5 State Tournament. click for more
Brayden Durant struck out seven and walked one in a complete-game effort on the mound Saturday to pitch the Drury baseball team to a 6-0 win over Keefe Tech in the quarter-finals of the Division 5 State Tournament at Joe Wolfe Field. click for more
Jason Codey struck out 13, walked two and allowed just an infield single as the Generals earned a 7-1 win over Wahconah to claim their third straight regional title. click for more
Gracelyn Wright struck out eight, and Genevieve Lagess went 3-for-5 with four runs batted in as the Hurricanes beat Monson, 17-3, to claim their first Western Mass title in four years. click for more
For the boys, Ward Bianchi helped lead the way with a win in the shot put and a second place in the javelin as the Mounties finished 16 points ahead of runner-up Pittsfield (pending the results of the pole vault, which were unavailable at 11 p.m. Friday night). click for more
