Ventfort Hall, Screenwriter Nannina Gilder to Host Presentation on Jennie Van DerZee

11:19AM / Thursday, July 14, 2022Print Story | Email Story

LENOX, Mass – Local screenwriter and film historian Nannina Gilder will speak at Ventfort Hall on Tuesday, July 26 at 4 p.m. about Jennie Van DerZee, a forgotten trailblazing woman of Lenox’s Gilded Age. A tea will follow her presentation.

Jennie Van DerZee Welcome grew up on Hubbard Street with her four siblings, including Harlem Renaissance Photographer James Van DerZee, but while James was rediscovered in the 1960s and has been celebrated since, Jennie has been mostly forgotten.

Gilder will tell Jennie’s story, from a childhood in Lenox full of art and music, to her pursuit of higher education in painting, and her family’s journey down to Harlem in 1910, where she and her husband, Ernest Touissant Welcome, made "Doing Their Bit," a multi-part documentary about African American soldiers in WWI. Under the name Madame Touissant Welcome, Jennie had career as a painter, photographer, and headmistress of an art and music conservatory. At the same time she and her husband were pioneers in New York real estate, helping African Americans own homes, and making inroads into neighborhoods that had been predominantly white.

Gilder is a screenwriter and film historian. In 2020 she gave a four-part seminar, Invisible: Female Filmmakers before 1960, and Silhouette Animation: The Genius of Lotte Reiniger, a lecture on the pioneering animator, both at Ventfort Hall. The short film she wrote, Sproutland, premiered at the Florida Film Festival in 2021 and has won over a dozen awards. Her play The Curious Abduction of Mona Lisa was performed at Ventfort Hall in 2013.

Tickets are $30 for members and with advance reservation; $35 day of; $22 for students 22 and under. Reservations are required as seats are limited. Walk-ins accommodated as space allows. For reservations call us at (413) 637-3206. Please note that all tickets are nonrefundable and non-exchangeable. Proof of vaccination and ID are required. The historical mansion is located at 104 Walker Street in Lenox.

The summer series of Tea & Talks is sponsored in part by board member Lucille Landa and William Landa.

Tags: Ventfort Hall,

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Pittsfield Seeks CPA Funds for Bike Racks, AED

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
07:17PM / Sunday, October 25, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The city plans to apply for Community Preservation Act funds for park bike racks and an AED machine at the pickleball fields.

On Tuesday, the Parks Commission endorsed Pittsfield’s applications for CPA funds.

"Both of those projects are certainly, relative to CPA funds, low cost but high benefit," Commissioner Anthony DeMartino said.

Through CPA, bike racks are proposed for a few city parks, and the Berkshire Mountain Pickleball league is looking to place an automatic external defibrillator at the Benedict Avenue pickleball fields.

Parks, Open Space, and Natural Resources Manager James McGrath and Recreation & Special Events Coordinator Jennifer VanBramer presented the two small project applications, which will go through an eligibility period before full consideration in the spring of 2027.

During the city’s free, six-week, summer playground program, it was observed that many kids access parks by bicycle. The plan is to buy between six and eight racks to be placed at Durant Park, the Common, and Clapp Park; other parks are being considered as well.

McGrath explained that the three parks hosting the playground program don’t have bike racks, and they wind up on the ground and sometimes become a distraction.

"The ancillary benefit to having bike racks is that it encourages that mode of transportation for folks that want to come to the park on their bike," he said.

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