MCLA Announces Tamar Sarai as 2024 Hardman Journalist in Residence

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NORTH ADAMS, Mass.— Writer and journalist Tamar Sarai will deliver the Hardman Journalist in Residence Lecture on Monday, April 8, at 6 p.m., in the Feigenbaum Center for Science and Innovation Atrium. 
 
The lecture is free and open to the public.
 
"Tamar Sarai represents a refreshing journalistic practice which our Beacon and Beacon Web News journalism students will find energizing and modern," said MCLA Professor Michael Birch. "Her writing will offer new topics and focus for their learning, as will her emphasis on the power and value of good writing in the service of exceptional storytelling. This will be an excellent learning opportunity for our students."
 
According to a press release, Tamar Sarai is a writer and journalist currently based in Philadelphia. She is a features writer at Prism, a non-profit media outlet that seeks to highlight the perspectives and voices of those directly impacted by some of today's most pressing issues. Tamar's work focuses on race, culture, and the criminal legal system. Both her writing for Prism and her freelance work often focus on the ways Black women and girls are impacted by policing and the prison system. Her work has been featured in outlets including Shadowproof, Capital B, and Essence. Tamar is a graduate of Wellesley College and Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
 
MCLA's Hardman Lecture Series presents in-depth discussions with some of the leading journalists of our time and is made possible through the Hardman Family Endowment.

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North Adams Hopes to Transform Y Into Community Recreation Center

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff

Mayor Jennifer Macksey updates members of the former YMCA on the status of the roof project and plans for reopening. 
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The city has plans to keep the former YMCA as a community center.
 
"The city of North Adams is very committed to having a recreation center not only for our youth but our young at heart," Mayor Jennifer Macksey said to the applause of some 50 or more YMCA members on Wednesday. "So we are really working hard and making sure we can have all those touch points."
 
The fate of the facility attached to Brayton School has been in limbo since the closure of the pool last year because of structural issues and the departure of the Berkshire Family YMCA in March.
 
The mayor said the city will run some programming over the summer until an operator can be found to take over the facility. It will also need a new name. 
 
"The YMCA, as you know, has departed from our facilities and will not return to our facility in the form that we had," she said to the crowd in Council Chambers. "And that's been mostly a decision on their part. The city of North Adams wanted to really keep our relationship with the Y, certainly, but they wanted to be a Y without borders, and we're going a different direction."
 
The pool was closed in March 2023 after the roof failed a structural inspection. Kyle Lamb, owner of Geary Builders, the contractor on the roof project, said the condition of the laminated beams was far worse than expected. 
 
"When we first went into the Y to do an inspection, we certainly found a lot more than we anticipated. The beams were actually rotted themselves on the bottom where they have to sit on the walls structurally," he said. "The beams actually, from the weight of snow and other things, actually crushed themselves eight to 11 inches. They were actually falling apart. ...
 
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