Simon's Rock Celebrates Pride This March with Lecture, Dance Performance

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GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. —Simon's Rock will host their annual Pride Week in the last week of March, featuring two events open to the public. 
 
Simon's Rock observes Pride Week every year in March to honor International Transgender Day of Visibility and to allow students time to celebrate during the academic year. 
 
Alum Anne Thalheimer '91 will deliver the annual Pride Week Lecture. 
 
Anne Thalheimer has a B.A. from Simon's Rock in Literary Studies. She holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in English from the University of Delaware. Based in Western Massachusetts, she is an educator, artist, and activist, whose work in visual culture, autobio comix, and independent publishing spans three decades. Her work (both academic and graphic) has appeared in numerous collections, including the MLA's Teaching The Graphic Novel. She is a long-term reviewer for Xerography Debt and a former contributor to both Fleen and PopMatters. 
 
The Pride Week Lecture will be held at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 28, in the McConnell Theater at the Daniel Arts Center on the Bard College at Simon's Rock campus. The event is free and open to the public. 
 
A live stream is also available at: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87103312935 
 
Simon's Rock will also host the dance performance FACES, presented by Ian Spencer Bell. This event features an interpretation of Isadora Duncan's The Many Faces of Love, Merce Cunningham's solo from Roaratorio, and Ian Spencer Bell's Rosing, with live performance by pianist Lauren Aloia. 
 
FACES presented by Ian Spencer Bell will occur at 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 1, in the McConnell Theater at the Daniel Arts Center. This event is free and will include a talkback with Ian Spencer Bell after the show.
 
Ian Spencer Bell is a dancer and a poet. His first performances were awarded a grant from the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. He has danced his work at the 92nd Street Y, Boston Center for the Arts, Jacob's Pillow, National Arts Club, Poetry Foundation, and Queens Museum. His writing has been published by Ballet Review, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Dance Magazine, Movement Research, and The Yale Review.
 
For a decade throughout the United States, Bell led education and training programs for American Ballet Theatre. His work with children for ABT was danced at the Los Angeles Music Center and the Metropolitan Opera. Bell has been a visiting artist at Bard College at Simon's Rock and Vassar College. He is on faculty at Nightingale-Bamford School.
 
Bell was born in Washington, DC, and grew up in Fauquier County, Virginia. He trained at North Carolina School of the Arts, Pacific Northwest Ballet School, and School of American Ballet and was educated at Sarah Lawrence College and New York University. 

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West Stockbridge Gearing Up for Zucchini Fest

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

West Stockbridge will be filled with zucchini on Saturday so don't leave your car unlocked.

WEST STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. — Zucchini, courgette, summer squash — whatever you call it.  West Stockbridge will be full of the vegetable (or fruit) on Saturday.

Volunteers are busy preparing homemade booths, decorations, games, and more for the annual Zucchini Festival from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. The first was held in 2003, ran for a decade, and then went on hiatus until it was brought back last year.

Sponsored by the West Stockbridge Cultural Council, the festival has drawn thousands to the town's center over the years and is a testament to its tight-knit community. Chris Powell, one of the many hands who make it happen, explained that the actual event and the preparations unite people from near and far in a special way.

"It's just a bunch of people coming together when they can and kind of meeting everyone where they're at too, what they can put into it, and it's just super fun in that way," he said.

It will kick off with a pet parade where zucchini costumes are encouraged if temperatures aren't too high. Lucky Bucket will end the night playing classic rock, oldies, country, blues, and soul beneath fireworks.  

In between, attendees can enter a zucchini weigh-off or decorating contest, a "zuck" river race, a baking contest, and a poetry contest among many more. These are said to be "quintessential" to the event.

There will also be a food court with vendors offering one to two zucchini-themed options along with their usual fare. Downtown businesses are also participating.

It is free and for all ages, with tickets for games and activities available for purchase. Powell noted that Zucchini Festival merchandise is cash only.

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