March 2005

Greetings from Inkberry!

February may be the shortest month, but we packed a lot into it here at Inkberry. On the first of February we held a tea for the women involved with our “Stories of Strength” breast cancer survivors’ oral histories program; it was an intimate gathering, our first here in the new Inkberry space. We sat around on the couch and comfy chairs in our new writers’ resource library, nibbled at grapes and goldfish crackers, and talked with the women who’d been on both sides of the tape recorder. I learned a lot about what worked in our pilot program (and what we could do better next time around), and came away feeling really jazzed. That feeling only increased when, a few days later, we got the good news that the Cultural Council of Northern Berkshire is awarding us the funds we’d requested to expand Stories of Strength with a breast cancer survivors’ journaling workshop this year!

Somehow, between continuing to settle in to our new office and continuing to ramp up our programming, February zipped by. Or maybe that’s because I was actually away much of the month: I was fortunate enough to get to visit India with my husband. I had an amazing and overwhelming time (which you can read about here, if you’re interested) and came home less than 24 hours before our first big February event, a performance by Ken Waldman, “Alaska’s Fiddling Poet.” Ken’s gig was a co-presentation with the Railway Café, and I think both organizations came away hoping that this is the first of many. He played to a full house in the parish hall at St. John’s Episcopal church, and his stories and poems and old-time fiddling were a huge hit with our North Adams crowd.

The following weekend, we had the pleasure of presenting poets Trudy Ames and Dan Tobin, this time at the Main Street Stage. (The initial reading lineup had called for Martha Rhodes, but for personal reasons she wasn’t able to join us; we hope she’ll come another time.) Trudy and Dan’s work was wonderful, naturally, and we enjoyed our first reading at the Stage in several years — I think we’re the first crowd to use their spiffy new seats!

Behind the scenes, we’ve been working hard on a Massachusetts Cultural Council organizational support grant application, which made it in on time despite the snow. The process of writing a big grant application is always a little bit exhausting (lots of I’s to dot and T’s to cross) but also a lot of fun (we tend not to dwell on what we’ve done, but there’s nothing like compiling a list of several years’ worth of programming to make one realize just how much has happened since Inkberry was born). Cross your fingers for us!

We’ve also been hard at work on a website redesign, and though I don’t want to jinx it by making a premature announcement, I can tell you it’s coming sometime reasonably soonish. Most of the changes are back-end ones (the site will look mostly the same, but it’ll be far easier to update and maintain, which is great news from our end), though we’ll be rolling out a few new things, among them a revamped set of community forums and the spiffy new InkBlog, so stay tuned.

In other news, we’re pleased to announce a strengthening of our partnership with Papyri Books, the terrific indie bookstore down the block from Inkberry. We’re now working with Papyri to schedule and present their WordPlay reading series, on the second Saturday of each month; the series features a local author or two, followed by an open-mike. This month, alas, we’re presenting two events opposite one another (an Inkberry event at the Bean, about which more in a moment, and WordPlay at Papyri) but in future we’ll take more care not to double-book! We’re excited about working with Papyri and adding our own style to WordPlay — while preserving what’s made it great all along.

Now we’re moving ahead full steam into March. The month starts out slow, but by mid-month we’ll be building speed (we’re presenting an Evening of Local Nonfiction featuring Mike Card, Jennifer Mattern Lane, and Florence Grende, on March 12th, at the Appalachian Bean Café) and by the end of the month we’ll be zooming into National Poetry Month (March 31 will bring the first event in our poetry festival, a poetry slam at Gideon’s Nightery; it also marks the beginning of our interfaith discussion group Reading Each Others’ Sacred Stories, co-led by a minister and a rabbi). You’ll hear more about each of these events as they approach.

As I write this, first-of-March snow is pouring down outside Inkberry’s big glass windows. I love this about our new space: I get to watch the hills grow increasingly obscured by white, pedestrians dodging the flakes. When I stay at work late enough, I get to see all of the trees up and down Main Street illuminated — the strings of white lights go on just after five-thirty, when twilight gives up and moves on. It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood, and now that it’s March we’ll be adhering to our new Writers’ Resource Library hours, so if you’re looking for books to borrow — or for a place to sit and read, or sit and write — swing by 61 Main #223 on Tuesday or Friday afternoons (1-5pm).

I’ll close, as usual, with a book recommendation. I read a ton of India books this month; my favorite was Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance. The book’s been called Dickensian, and I think that’s a fair epithet, though I mean it in the best of ways. It’s a spectacular sweep through India in the 1970s and 1980s, through the eyes of four very different characters. If you know what Indian life was like during those years (especially during the 1975 Emergency), you’ll love this glimpse into how those shifts played out; if, like me, you’re no expert, you’ll find the historical changes a rollercoaster, and the protagonists excellent points of entry into a world as vivid and riveting as any I’ve ever read. It’s long, but the pages fly by; when I finished, I wanted nothing more than to read it again.

And that’s all the news that’s fit to print! Thanks for being a part of Inkberry; we hope to see you soon.

— Rachel