BITS & BYTES: Rev. Esther Dozier celebration; BCC STEM Café; Distinguished Lecture with William Perry; Mid-day Music and Meditation; Berkshire Bounty food drive

The late Rev. Esther Dozier to be celebrated April 2 in Nice Barrington

GREAT BARRINGTON — The late Rev. Esther Dozier — who initiated Nice Barrington’s annual W.E.B. Du Bois birthday celebrations greater than 20 years in the past — will probably be honored Saturday, April 2 with a birthday celebration of her own. On what would have been her eightieth birthday, the primary feminine pastor on the historic Clinton African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, will probably be feted at Saint James Place in Nice Barrington. The neighborhood is invited to attend the 4 p.m. celebration, which is able to embrace music, tributes, and refreshments.

In 2001, Dozier led the city’s first annual Du Bois celebration. “Honoring Our Historical past: A Celebration of W.E.B. Du Bois” included a lecture by David Graham Du Bois and a program by college students from the Jubilee Faculty in Philadelphia. Underneath Dozier’s management, the Clinton Church, lengthy a middle of social activism, grew to become a hub for actions associated to the Du Bois Homesite and Higher Housatonic Valley African American Heritage Path. Within the mid-2000s, Dozier collaborated carefully with David Levinson on his e-book, “Stitching Circles, Dime Suppers, and W.E.B. Du Bois: A Historical past of the Clinton A.M.E. Zion Church” (Berkshire Publishing, 2007) and started the nomination course of that finally led, in 2008, to the itemizing of the Clinton A.M.E. Zion Church on the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations.

Born in rural Alabama, Dozier was raised in poverty however taught by her mom to dream huge. As a younger lady, she moved to the Berkshires with two of her sisters. Energetic within the Clinton Church for 4 many years, she served as its pastor for almost 9 years, the primary lady (after 48 males) to carry the function for the reason that church’s founding within the 1860s.

Dozier believed that the church was a spot for refueling however her actions and affect prolonged far into the neighborhood. Along with lifting up Black historical past and tradition and the legacy of Du Bois, she spoke passionately in opposition to injustice, intolerance, and socio-economic inequality. She was a powerful supporter of the housing group Assemble, which many years earlier had operated out of the Church’s basement, and was a frequent participant in charitable and interfaith actions.

“My aunt was a lot concerning the future,” says Dozier’s nephew Delano Burrowes, a Brooklyn-based artist who helps to plan the upcoming celebration. “She planted seeds for lots of the conversations we’re having at present. Her legacy prompts us to consider our personal — what are we doing concerning the future? How can we dwell as much as her beliefs of hope, motion, and repair to our communities?”

“Esther had such an influence on me personally, and on Jubilee’s historical past,” says Jubilee Faculty founder Karen Falcon, who will journey from Philadelphia to talk on the April 2 occasion. “She was an incredible particular person and had a legendary function in inspiring the city of Nice Barrington to rejoice its native son. This tribute to her is hard-earned.”

Burrowes is one among three relations who will converse on the occasion. Becoming a member of him will probably be his mom Rev. Conway, co-pastor of the Macedonia Baptist Church and a member of Clinton Church Restoration advisory board, and Virginia Conway, Dozier’s sister-in-law and a longtime Clinton Church member. Musical alternatives will probably be supplied by the Value Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church Choir and Dr. MaryNell Morgan-Brown.

There is no such thing as a cost to attend the celebration, nonetheless, contributions to assist restore the historic Clinton African Methodist Episcopal Church could also be made in Rev. Dozier’s reminiscence on the occasion or online.

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BCC introduces free STEM Café occasion

PITTSFIELD — Berkshire Community College (BCC) will current a free Science, Know-how, Engineering and Arithmetic (STEM) Café on Tuesday, March 22. The drop-in session will probably be held from 11:30 a.m.–1 p.m. in The Connector, positioned between Hawthorne Corridor and Melville Corridor.

Introduced by BCC’s STEM Starter Academy, the STEM Café will deal with switch and employment alternatives and have displays by Berkshire STEM Community companions. A particular spotlight consists of the chance for immediate switch to Massachusetts Faculty of Liberal Arts (MCLA). Meals, enjoyable and prizes will probably be readily available.

Presenters embrace:

• MCLA Life Sciences & Radiology Departments
• Normal Dynamics
• Native non-profit STEM organizations Women Inc., Flying Cloud Institute, and Middle for EcoTechnology
• Berkshire STEM Community representatives, who will provide science kits and STEM lending library assets
• MCLA 2-4 STEM Switch Bridge Program consultant David Eve, MCLA Laptop Science Division
• MassTeach consultant Nick Stroud, MCLA Training Division
• MCLA Switch Counselor Kolumbia Granger
• BCC Profession Middle consultant Charlotte Lotz, who will provide BCC college students enrollment within the profession software program program Handshake, and alternatives to find out about internships and jobs
• BCC STEM alumni who transferred to MCLA, who will share their experiences and aspirations

Discussion board credit score will probably be supplied to BCC college students.

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Distinguished Lecture to characteristic composer-conductor William Perry

LENOX — The Lenox Library’s subsequent Distinguished Lecture will probably be held Sunday, March 27 at 4 p.m. Composer, producer, and Berkshire Edge contributor William Perry will talk about “Poetry: It’s the Solely Factor that Issues.” The occasion is free and open to the general public, and can happen through Zoom.

Born in Elmira, New York, William P. Perry attended Harvard College and studied music with Paul Hindemith, Walter Piston, and Randall Thompson and literature with George Sherburn and Walter Jackson Bate. After a stint within the army, he joined the J. Walter Thompson promoting company as a composer, script author, and tv producer, working with such leisure icons as Arthur Godfrey, Ed Sullivan, and Jackie Gleason.

The following profession transfer took him to the Museum of Trendy Artwork, the place he grew to become music director and composed and carried out greater than 200 scores for the Museum’s silent movie assortment. His subsequent PBS tv collection, “The Silent Years,” hosted by Orson Welles and Lillian Gish, gained an Emmy Award. Perry is usually credited with having performed a significant function within the revival of curiosity in traditional silent movies. Persevering with his affiliation with PBS, he created and produced the “Anybody for Tennyson?” poetry collection and thereafter produced and scored the Peabody-Award profitable Mark Twain Collection of six characteristic movies for Nice Performances. His stage work has included a musical biography of Mark Twain that ran for ten summers in Elmira and Hartford and a Broadway musical model of “Wind within the Willows” starring Nathan Lane. In recent times Perry, a longtime Berkshires resident, has focused on a Naxos collection of CDs of his orchestral works.

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Mid-day Music and Meditation at Salisbury UCC

SALISBURY, Conn. — The Congregational Church of Salisbury, UCC will current its month-to-month Mid-day Music and Meditation on Friday, April 1 from 12–12:30 p.m. at 30 Predominant St. in Salisbury. The Assembly Home doorways will open at 11:30 a.m. and attendance will probably be restricted to one-half capability. Viewers members will probably be admitted on a first-come, first-served foundation. Masks will probably be required.

For this musical meditation, the church’s music director, Dr. Samuel Lord Kalcheim, will current a half hour of organ and instrumental works. Free to the general public, this musical present gives a time of reflection surrounded by inspiring, soul-nourishing classical repertory. For extra data, please contact the church workplace at 860-435-2442.

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Berkshire Bounty cell meals drive set for April 5

GREAT BARRINGTON — Berkshire Bounty’s subsequent Cell Meals Drive will probably be held Tuesday, April 5 from 9/11 a.m.

Volunteers will once more be gathering canned and/or packaged items to be delivered to The People’s Pantry in Nice Barrington. Volunteers will come to donors’ houses on February 1 between 9–11 a.m. Donations needs to be left on the doorstep by 9 a.m. Donations can also be dropped off at Hevreh of Southern Berkshire or The Individuals’s Pantry.

Please take into account a) donating canned and/or packaged meals or b) driving to select up meals at donors’ residence. In case you are enthusiastic about collaborating, please e-mail Berkshire Bounty at info@berkshire-bounty.org and embrace what want to do, your avenue handle, e-mail handle, and finest contact phone quantity.

Meals in most demand are hearty soups, pasta, pasta sauce, cereal, cooking oil, espresso, and tea. If donating from your individual pantry, please test expiration dates.

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