Clark Art Film Screening and Poetry Event

08:14AM / Tuesday, April 29, 2025Print Story | Email Story

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — On Saturday, May 3 at 4 pm, the Clark Art Institute presents "Walt Whitman Comes to the Clark," a combination film screening and poetry event centering around Whitman's most famous poem, "Song of Myself."

This free event takes place in the Clark's Manton Research Center auditorium.

According to a press release:

Whitman's "barbaric yawp," "Song of Myself" celebrates freedom, inclusion, and democracy. Working with this iconic piece, theater collective Compagnia de' Colombari has created seven short films with actors and musicians around the globe bringing Whitman's words to life in startling and beautiful new ways. These films are screened as part of their nationwide Whitman on Walls! (WoW!) tour. After each film, a poet published by Tupelo Press offers an original piece of work written in response to the film—conversing with, talking back to, and wrestling with Walt Whitman.

Compagnia de' Colombari is a New York City theater group founded in Orvieto, Italy, in 2004. Springing from the vision of director Karin Coonrod, it involves an international collective of performing artists, generating theater in surprising places.

Tupelo Press is an independent non-profit press discovering and publishing works of poetry, literary fiction, and creative nonfiction by emerging and established writers.

Tags: Clark Art,

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Williamstown Housing Trust Agrees to Continue Emergency Mortgage, Rental Programs

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
04:14AM / Tuesday, December 30, 2025

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The board of the town's Affordable Housing Trust at its December meeting voted to extend its mortgage and rental assistance programs and discussed bringing in some consultants early next year before embarking on any new programs.

Chair Daniel Gura informed the board that its agreements with Pittsfield's Hearthway Inc., to administer the Williamstown Emergency Rental Assistance Program and Williamstown Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program was expiring at the end of the year.

Gura sought and obtained a vote of the board to extend the programs, born during the COVID-19 pandemic, through the end of January 2026, at which time the board plans to sign a new long-term agreement.

"In 2024, we distributed $80,000," through the programs known as WERAP and WEMAP, Gura said. "This year, to date, we gave $16,000, and Ihere's $17,000 left. … It's a little interesting we saw a dropoff from 2024 to 2025, although I think there were obvious reasons for that in terms of where we are in the world."

Gura suggested that the board might want to increase the funding to the programs, which benefit income-qualified town residents.

"If you look at the broader economic picture in this country, there's a prospect of more people needing help, not fewer people," Thomas Sheldon said in agreeing with Gura. "I think the need will bump up again."

The board voted to add an additional $13,000 to the amount available to applicants screened by Hearthway with the possibility of raising that funding if a spike in demand is seen.

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