Pittsfield Celebrates Housatonic

12:00AM / Thursday, July 29, 2004Print Story | Email Story

On Saturday, August 7th, in downtown Pittsfield, artists, musicians, actors, dancers, writers, and other performers will recognize and honor the Housatonic River in Pittsfield with a variety of performances. The celebration is co-sponsored by the Storefront Artist Project, the Berkshire Music School, and St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in collaboration with the region-wide Housatonic River Summer 2004. The performances are free and open to the public. The first performance, a multimedia, multicultural celebration entitled RiverMASS, will be held at 2pm at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church on Park Square. RiverMASS celebrates the east and west branches of the Housatonic River uniting in Pittsfield with a vibrant ceremony/performance that includes pageantry, bang-on-a-can style music and audience participation. RiverMASS, which is created and directed by singer/songwriter JoAnne Spies, features a variety of performers including the dancers and drummers of Youth Alive; the River Festival Chorus, directed by Berkshire Music School director Tracy Wilson; jazz tap dancer Sherry Salerno; musicians from Manos Unidas' Latin American Music Project; and five to eight-year-old art students from the Becket Art Center, who will perform River Myths in costume. Other participating musicians include Hector on Stilts, who will be performing a song entitled "The River" by John Hyatt; harpist Lynne Davis; singer Shirley Edgerton, who will perform "Wade in the Water;" and Ed Stander, who will perform the Pachebel Canon on water glasses. In addition, dancer/choreographer Stefanie Weber will present a world premiere of Eschun Exuvia, a interactive sculpture/performance based on the Yoruban water goddess Eschun and the role that dragonflies play in both the ecology of the Housatonic River and the tracking of pollution in it. In addition to music and performances, Housatonic River Initiative founder Tim Gray will read "A Letter from the Hopi Elders;" Michael Johnson will lead "Calling in Our Ancestors;" artist Susan Hartung will read "Water I Had Not Known You;" Sufi leader Aftab will lead a water dance; Reverend Gay Rahn will perform a water blessing; and Janice Wahita Young will lead attendees in a Buddhist blessing and chant. Longtime Pittsfield artist Edwin Treitler will read a poem written for the occasion entitled, "A Prayer for our Rivers." Treitler organized a celebration/ceremony for the Housatonic River in Pittsfield in the early 1980s that led to the establishment of Pittsfield's Fred Garner Park along the Housatonic.

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North Adams Officials to Revote School Committee Members

Staff reports06:31PM / Friday, October 09, 2026

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — City and school officials will meet a second time to vote in two new members of the School Committee.

The joint convention of the City Council and School Committee will be held on Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the City Hall conference room and via Zoom.

Damon Grimes and Paul Moriarty were jointly elected on Monday to fill two seats vacated by resignation. They were two of four candidates standing for election.

Mayor Jennifer Macksey, chair of the School Committee, said she had received in inquiry about the votes, which were done by secret ballot.

"I have been advised that voting by ballot was not permissible in this circumstance," she said, after consulting the School Committee's attorney Adam Dupere and city solicitor KP Law.

To ensure the validity of the votes and conduct of the election, the joint convention will reconvene and formally confirm the selection of Grimes and Moriarty.

"I apologize for the inconvenience of having to reconvene," the mayor said in a statement. "My intention in using a ballot was to address concerns raised following our previous convention, when some members expressed discomfort with publicly voting for or against individual candidates.

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