Mariane Pearl to Speak at MCLA

Print Story | Email Story
Mariane Pearl
NORTH ADAMS - Mariane Pearl, wife of slain journalist and former North Adams Transcript reporter Daniel Pearl, will appear at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts on Wednesday, March 5, at 7:30 p.m.

Part of the Hardman Lecture Series, her talk, "A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl," will take place in the Church Street Center. The event is free and open to the public.

A freelance journalist, Mariane Pearl writes a column, "Global Diary," for Glamour magazine that spotlights women activists around the world. The columns have been collected into a book, "In Search of Hope."

Pearl was thrust into the spotlight in 2002 when her husband, a bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, was kidnapped and murdered by Islamic extremists in Pakistan in early 2002.

Born Mariane Van Neyenhoff in Clinchy, Haute-de-Seine, France, Pearl was raised in Paris. She met her husband while he was on assignment there. They married in August 1999, and moved to Mumbai, India, where Daniel was the South Asia bureau chief for The Journal.

The couple later traveled to Karachi, Pakistan, to cover aspects of the war on terrorism. It was in Karachi that Daniel was kidnapped and later killed. Mariane was pregnant at the time, and their son, Adam Daniel, was born in Paris three months later.

Pearl's memoir, "A Mighty Heart," which deals with the events surrounding her husband's kidnapping and assassination, was adapted for a film of the same name starring Angelina Jolie, with whom she'd become a close friend, as herself and Dan Futterman as her husband. The film was released last spring.

She is a practicing Nichiren Buddhist and a member of Soka Gakkai International, a Buddhist association that promotes world peace and individual happiness.

Daniel Pearl began his career in journalism at the Transcript and later at The Berkshire Eagle before joining The Wall Street Journal.

The Hardman Lecture Series is made possible through the generosity of the Hardman Family Endowment.
If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Freight Yard Pub Serving the Community for Decades

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff

One of the eatery's menu mainstays is the popular French onion soup. 
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Freight Yard Pub has been serving the community for decades with a welcoming atmosphere and homemade food.
 
Siblings Sean and Colleen Taylor are the owners Freight Yard Pub. They took it over with their brother Kevin and Colleen's first husband in 1992. The two came from Connecticut and Boston to establish a restaurant and said they immediately felt welcomed in their new home.
 
"The reception that the community gave us in the beginning was so warm and so welcoming that we knew we found home," Colleen Taylors said. "We've made this area our homes since then, as a matter of fact, all of our friends and relationships came out of Freight Yard Pub."
 
The pub is located in Western Gateway Heritage State Park, and its decor is appropriately train-themed, as the building it's in used to be part of the freight yard, but it also has an Irish pub feel. It is the only original tenant still operating in the largely vacant park. The Taylors purchased the business after it had several years of instability and closures; they have run it successfully for more than three decades.
 
Colleen and Sean have been working together since they were teenagers. They have operated a few restaurants, including the former Taylor's on Holden Street, and currently operate takeout restaurant Craft Food Barn, Trail House Kitchen & Bar and Berkshire Catering Co. 
 
"Sean and I've been working together. Gosh, I think since we were 16, and we have a wonderful business relationship, where I know what I cover, he knows what he covers," she said. "We chat every single day, literally every day we have a morning phone call to say, OK, checking in."
 
The two enjoy being a part of the community and making sure to lend a hand to those who made them feel so welcome in the first place.
 
View Full Story

More North Adams Stories