The highlights of the cultural weekend in our region include Scottish fiddle tunes, poetry, African dance, Indian music … plus a whole lot more.
Camille A. Brown and Dancers present ‘Ink’ at MASS MoCA on Saturday at 8pm and on Sunday at 2pm. The final installation of Camille Brown’s trilogy about identity, “Ink” celebrates the rituals, gestural vocabulary, and traditions that remain ingrained within the lineage of the African Diaspora. The choreography is an amalgamation of African-American social dance, African dance, tap, jazz, modern, and hip-hop styles, accompanied by a live band that combines elements of blues, hip-hop, jazz, and swing.
"Pipeline," first presented by WAM Theatre as a Fresh Takes reading in August 2018, returns as a WAM MainStage performance, having in the meantime garnered an Obie for its Tony-nominated playwright Dominique Morisseau. The play runs at Shakespeare & Co. in Lenox now through Nov 9.
Local filmmaker and Williams College alumna Stacy Cochran will be at the Clark Art Institute on Saturday at 2pm for a free screening of her terrific new film, “Write When You Get Work.” After the screening, Cochran will be joined by Emmy-nominated writer/producer and fellow Williams College alumnus Michael Sardo for a conversation about the film and Cochran’s work. A reception follows the event.
Poets including 2018 Pulitzer Prize winner Frank Bidart, Rage Hezekiah, Krysten Hill, Doug Anderson, and Ellen Dore Watson are featured in the 2nd annual Voices of Poetry at the Mount in Lenox on Saturday at 5pm.
The U.S. National Scottish Fiddle Champion Jamie Laval plays music from Ireland, the Scottish Highlands, and Brittany at Dewey Hall in Sheffield tonight at 7:30pm. Laval was the 2002 winner of the U.S. National Scottish Fiddle Championship which launched his full-time career in Celtic music. Laval is especially known for his uncanny imitation of Highland bagpipes and for his appearance on Dave Matthews' platinum-selling album, “Some Devil.”
The West Stockbridge Chamber Players play works by Ibert, Thompson, and Mozart in their annual Harvest Concert on Sunday at 2pm, at the Old Town Hall in West Stockbridge.
Brooklyn Raga Massive and Go: Organic Orchestra team up for RAGMALA – A Garland of Ragas’ at Hudson Hall on Saturday at 7pm. RAGMALA is a synergistic exploration of India’s classical music and contemporary creative music.
The Hudson Valley’s own Holly George-Warren reads from her terrific new biography, “Janis: Her Life and Music,” at Woodstock’s Kleinert James Center for the Performing Arts on Sunday at 4pm. I can’t think of how to pay higher tribute to Holly George-Warren’s biography of Janis than this: up until a month or so ago I had never been much of a fan of Joplin's. Now, having read this extraordinary biography, I now understand — and more importantly, I now hear — the profound depths of Janis Joplin’s accomplishments -- how she took her early love of blues, country, and folk, mixed them in the cauldron of late-‘60s psychedelic-rock that was prevalent at the time, and infused them with her gift for melody, in order to come up with a visionary style and nakedly emotional sound all her own.
Nashville-born country singer-songwriter Laura Cantrell, accompanied by her string band, appears in the Flying Cat Music series at the United Methodist Church in Phoenicia, N.Y., on Saturday at 7:30pm.