The cultural highlights in our region this weekend include chamber music, jazz, dance, hip-hop …plus a whole lot more.
Juneteenth events are happening all across our region. In Pittsfield, Mass., the unveiling of a mural by artist Frances Chlöe Jones-Whitman, featuring a Mount Rushmore of local legends in the Berkshire Black community including W.E.B. Dubois, Elizabeth Freeman, Samuel Harrison, Agrippa Hull, Frances Jones-Sneed, James Van Der Zee, and Stephanie Wilson, take place today at 2 at Persip Park. Pops Peterson’s “Walk With Her” mural featuring Ruby Bridges Hall will be unveiled on Saturday at noon at the Lichtenstein Center for Arts; and an all-day Juneteenth Celebration at Durant Park on Sunday will feature African drumming with Jerome Edgerton and musical performances with singers Wanda L. Houston, Chantell McFarland, and Samirah Evans. (Fri, June 17-Sun, June 19)
Also on the occasion of Juneteenth, Barrington Stage in Pittsfield hosts “Lookin’ Good but Feelin’ Bad: An Exploration of Fats Waller and the Art of Subversion” on Sunday at 1:30pm, a talk featuring choreographer/director Jeffrey L. Page discussing BSC’s current production of Ain’t Misbehavin’, running this weekend through July 9. (Fri, June 17-Sat, July 9)
MASS MoCA doesn’t need Juneteenth as an excuse to bring back Grammy Award-winning zydeco all-star Terrance Simien to the venue’s Hunter Center, where he will entertain with his Black-American roots music on Saturday at 8pm. (Sat, June 18)
Juneteenth events presented by the Bardavon include The Resistance Revival Chorus, performing at the Old Dutch Church in Kingston on Saturday at 7pm, followed by author Imani Perry, interdisciplinary scholar of race, law, literature, and African-American culture at Princeton University, speaking on her new book, South to America, on Sunday at 5 at the Bardavon in Poughkeepsie. (Sat, Jun 18; Sun, June 19)
Singer-songwriter Amy Rigby, a founder of bands including Last Roundup and the Shams before gaining fame for her solo debut, “Diary of a Mod Housewife,” brings her acute portraits of everyday life to the Avalon Lounge in her hometown of Catskill, N.Y., tonight at 8, when Amy will be joined by her husband, Eric Goulden aka Wreckless Eric on bass and guitar and Doug Wygal on drums. (Fri, June 17)
Time and Space cofounders Linda Mussmann and Claudia Bruce join forces with sonic landscape artist John Moletress for “these three together,” a multimedia sonic composition exploring a meditative use of language to make statements about seeing & saying, weather reports, time & space, and how to move from the meaning of words to the sound of words as a way to create stories outside the narrative, on Saturday at 7pm at TSL in Hudson, N.Y. Also at TSL next Thursday, June 23, Pennsylvania-based improvisational quartet Manali brings its open-ended mix of indie-rock, jazz, psychedelia, and reggae, which comes out sounding like a blend of the Doors and the Feelies. (Sat, June 18; Thu, June 23)
Clarion Concerts celebrates its annual gala with a quartet of players from the New York Philharmonic at St. James Place in Great Barrington, Mass., on Saturday at 3pm, in a program of works by Haydn and Schubert. (Sat, June 18)
Tom Gold Dance returns to TurnPark Art Space in West Stockbridge, Mass., next Wednesday, June 22, at 6pm, with Gold’s work Intimacies and Visions Fugitives, a world premiere to music of the same title by Prokofiev and a tribute to artists of Ukraine. (Wed, June 22)
Vox Sambou, leader of the Montreal hip-hop collective Nomadic Massive, brings his original fusion of traditional rhythms of Haiti with elements of Afrobeat, jazz, reggae, and hip-hop, to PS21 in Chatham, N.Y., tonight at 8pm. (Fri, June 17)
It’s a musical weekend at the Stissing Center in Pine Plains, N.Y., starting on Saturday at 7pm with the Kazemde George Jazz Trio, and continuing on Sunday at 4 with pianist Zhu Wang in a solo concert playing works by Mozart, Schumann, Florence Price, and Liszt. (Sat, June 18-Sun, June 19)
This weekend marks the 10th annual Berkshire Gateway Jazz Weekend in Lee, Mass., running today through Sunday and featuring seven groups at five different events. Headliners include Michael Benedict and Bopitude tonight at Lee Congregational Church at 7:30 pm, and Karrin Allyson with legendary tenor saxophonist Houston Person at the same venue on Saturday at 7:30pm. (Fri, June 17-Sun, June 19)
This weekend Great Barrington Public Theater presents “The Shot,” Robin Gerber’s new play exploring the little-known domestic violence suffered by Katharine Graham before she became famed publisher of the Washington Post. Starring Emmy Award-winning actress Sharon Lawrence as Katharine Graham, “The Shot” runs for four performances, tonight through Sunday. (Fri, June 17-Sun, June 19)
Jay Ungar and Molly Mason bring their American roots music to the Spencertown Academy Arts Center in Spencertown, N.Y., on Saturday at 8. (Sat, June 18)
And Bonnie Raitt returns to Tanglewood on Saturday night at 7pm, with alt-country singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams warming up the crowd for the legendary pop-blues songstress. (Sat, June 18)
Seth Rogovoy is editor of the Rogovoy Report, available at rogovoyreport.com
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