Williams College Museum of Art Summer Program Series 'Immersions'

08:00AM / Monday, July 04, 2022Print Story | Email Story

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) invites visitors to immerse themselves in a summer program series titled Immersions.

Each program is inspired by the themes, histories, and practices that weave through the museum's summer exhibitions, such as healing, folklore, the five senses, and migration.

Programs will be held at 5:30 p.m. and will be followed by receptions on the WCMA patio at 6:30 p.m. The galleries will remain open until 8 p.m.

The series opens on Thursday, July 7, at 5:30 p.m. with Brooklyn-based medieval music ensemble Alkemie making their Berkshires debut with a performance of "Verdant Medicine: Hildegard's Resonant Apothecary," inspired by the life and writings of the twelfth century mystic, medic, and musician Hildegard von Bingen. This performance will take place in the Thompson Memorial Chapel, directly across Main Street from the museum.

According to a press release, this multi-dimensional program situates Hildegard's music within her understanding of medieval pharmacognosy (i.e. plant medicine), sharing her vision of an earth-bound transcendence that connects humans to the divine through spiritual "greening" and the five senses. "Intersensory Program Cards," hand-made for the performance, pair Hildegard's music, texts, and associated images with materials that audiences can literally smell, taste, touch, and hear.

The series continues on Thursday, July 21, at 5:30 p.m. when Williamstown Theatre Festival friends and alumni present an evening of performative readings exploring subtleties of labor inspired by works in the galleries and beyond. This program will be held in the WCMA Rotunda.

The series concludes on Thursday, Aug 4, at 5:30 p.m. with the Kriyol Dance! Collective performing a new, original work titled "Rasin San Bout" ("Endless Roots" in Haitian Creole), which explores ideas of immigration, migration politics, and acculturation as critical factors influencing the health of Caribbean immigrant communities, in particular Haitian immigrants. This program will be held in the WCMA Rotunda.

According to a press release, "Rasin San Bout" poses this question in relation to the health of Caribbean immigrant communities, in particular Haitian immigrants whose status as "immigrant" remains endemic in global and U.S. political news, and whose sheer numbers make up what may be the bulk of the immigrant population in KDC's rapidly gentrifying hometown of Flatbush, Brooklyn. Throughout this performance, themes of immigration, migration politics, displacement, mobility, acculturation, cultural identity, and solidarity emerge to shape an immersive dance journey.

The programs and receptions are all free and open to the public. WCMA is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Thursdays until 8 p.m. in July and August. Admission is free. Please note that masks and proof of vaccination against COVID-19 are required for visitors age 5 and up.

For more information, visit artmuseum.williams.edu.

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Discrimination Against Muslim Americans Persists 25 Years After 9/11

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
07:00AM / Saturday, September 12, 2026

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Dozens of Muslim Americans were among people killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Untold numbers of Muslim Americans have suffered countless acts of discrimination in their aftermath.

"Of course, you'll find several accounts of Muslims from all over the U.S. describing how they went from the unknown kids in the school to being stereotyped or ridiculed for their Muslim names," Sidra Mahmood recalled recently. "However, many Americans forget that the victims of 9/11 were also Muslim Americans.

"I can't forget the time when a classmate broke down in sobs when 9/11 came up in our classroom at the Islamic seminary I went to in Texas, because her father's best friend who was like an uncle to her, died on 9/11."

Today, Mahmood is a chaplain at Williams College. In 2001, she was growing up in Karachi, Pakistan, when terrorists forced two passenger jets into the Twin Towers in lower Manhattan and another plane into the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C. A third plane, which terrorists hoped to crash into a D.C. landmark, was brought down in western Pennsylvania after passengers and crew fought back against the hijackers.

The attacks, which ultimately claimed 2,976 lives, horrified people around the world, including in Mahmood's native land.

"I remember being aghast like anyone who witnessed the fall of the Twin Towers in real time," she said. "However, even as a child, fear gripped me about the possibility of war, especially once we learned that Afghanistan, right adjacent to Pakistan, would be attacked by the U.S. My mother had told me about the 1971 war between India and Pakistan when she remembered hiding in the dark after bomb sirens would go off in Punjab after intentional blackouts.

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