MCLA: Panel of Drag Performers to Celebrate Queer Identities and Performance Art

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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) invites the community to an evening of discussion and insight featuring a panel of local drag performers as part of the annual Lavender Lecture.  
 
Panelists Vuronika Baked, Gemini DaBarbay, and Jackie Leggs will take the stage on Wednesday, Oct. 16 at 5 p.m. in Venable Theater to share their personal experiences with drag and their journeys in exploring their queer identities. 
 
This panel, presented in a moderated Q&A format, offers an opportunity to hear from the performers about the role of drag in their lives, the challenges and triumphs they've faced, and how the art form has shaped their self-expression and activism. 
 
The event is sponsored by the MCLA Foundation Lavender Fund Donors, whose contributions continue to enrich campus life for LGBTQIA+ students. The Lavender Fund, launched in 2019, plays a critical role in bringing LGBTQIA+ speakers to campus, sending students to LGBTQIA+ conferences, and sponsoring trips to historic sites tied to the LGBTQIA+ civil rights movement. This initiative aims to foster a campus culture where LGBTQIA+ students feel supported and empowered. 
 
This event is free and open to the public. 
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Guest Column: North Adams Is Leading on Climate Response

By Dicken Crane & Henry ArtGuest Column
After several years of careful planning and invitations for public involvement to create a plan that will increase the resiliency of the woodlands in the Notch Reservoir watershed, restore its ecological function and intentionally manage the area using science-based, sustainable practices, a few citizens groups are now voicing opposition to the proposed forest management. 
 
Along with the city's leaders and the conservation organizations providing technical assistance to plan this restoration work, these groups share a sincere concern for the well-being of the forests.
 
However, one of their key objections to the proposed work is that Mother Nature can best manage the forest, and that humans manipulating the composition and structure of the forest is both unnatural and unnecessary for this landscape. 
 
Scientific research and historical context contradict this view. A broader understanding of the nature of both our regional forests and the role of humans that interact with them is necessary to understand what actions are called for and how they will work hand-in-hand with passive approaches to long-term stewardship.
 
For more than 10,000 years, humans have been integral in shaping the forests of this region. People both consume and influence the ecosystem services of clean air, water, food, fiber, shelter, and essential resources that the landscape provides. We have always been interdependent with the totality of life in this ecological landscape.
 
Some have suggested that the woods at Notch Reservoir are "pristine," or untouched by people, but this forest, like most in Massachusetts, re-grew after widespread land clearing in the 19 th century. While most of the forest re-grew naturally, the areas closest to the Notch Reservoir were planted in conifers — red pine, eastern white pine, and Norway spruce.
 
These plantations are now in decline. Invasive plant species, which crowd out the seedlings of native trees, have established in these declining plantations and will only increase in abundance if not removed as the canopy above them continues to disintegrate.
 
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