Happening this Week

CHRISTIAN BRECHNEFF: A PAINTER’S JOURNEY INTO THE GARDEN
VIRTUAL
May 13th, Thursday, 2PM
For the past three decades artist Christian Brechneff has often traded his traditional artistic studio for the expansive possibilities of a global odyssey. Immersing himself in terrains both near and far—from Lunugana in tropical Sri Lanka to the Aegean Island of Sifnos—he has had the privilege of painting in some of the most exquisite and heretofore unrecorded gardens of world-class tastemakers around the world. Join him for this webinar as he shares stories of his travels and interesting experiences along the way—as captured in his latest book, Into the Garden. $5 Garden Conservancy Members, $15 Nonmembers, $28 Webinar and a copy of Into the Garden.
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RISE: BUILDING RESILIENCE IN THE BERKSHIRES
IN PERSON
Adults: May 15th, Saturday, 9AM - 12PM
Youth & Adolescents: May 22nd, Saturday, 9AM - 12PM
May is Mental Health Awareness Month and Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health is partnering with the Berkshire Coalition for Suicide Prevention to offer any Berkshire County resident the opportunity to participate in RISE—Kripalu’s Signature Evidence-Based Resilience Training. As we move past one year of living in what is often referred to as the “new normal,” navigating the effects of 2020 will require resilience—defined by the National Alliance on Mental Illness as the process of finding healthy ways to adapt and cope with adversity and distress. RISE teaches participants to recognize the physiological symptoms of stress as they arise and to respond with intention rather than reaction. Free.
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HEARTBEAT OPERA: BREATHING FREE
VIRTUAL
May 15th, Saturday, 7PM
Breathing Free is a visual album from Heartbeat featuring excerpts from Beethoven’s Fidelio, Negro Spirituals and songs by Harry T. Burleigh, Florence Price, Langston Hughes, Anthony Davis and Thulani Davis. Heartbeat’s contemporary American Fidelio—told through the lens of Black Lives Matter—is the result of a 2018 collaboration with 100 incarcerated singers in six prison choirs. In 2020—the year of George Floyd’s murder, a pandemic which ravaged our prison population and the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth—Heartbeat curated a song cycle, Breathing Free, and brought it to life in vivid music videos, mingling excerpts from Fidelio with Negro Spirituals and songs by black composers and lyricists which together manifest a dream of justice, equity and…breathing free. At the end there will be a live talkback with the director Ethan Heard, creative producer Ras Dia and singer Kelly Griffin. Free.
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HOUSEPLANTS BY DESIGN: HOUSEPLANTS INTO HOMEPLANTS
ONLINE
May 16th, Sunday, 2PM
Are you utilizing your houseplants to their fullest aesthetic potential? In this virtual lecture filled with photos and inspiration from her own massive collection of houseplants, Tovah Martin will explore some of the easiest, most rewarding houseplants appropriate for all types of home situations and varying window exposures. She will help you elevate your plants from the 'green blob in the corner,' offer ideas for profiling plants beautifully and artistically, apply design principles to make your plants work meaningfully with your home decor. Tovah will also demonstrate how the right container can make a houseplant shine with personality as you learn to hose and care for houseplants. $25 BBG Members, $35 Nonmembers.
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WORD FOR WORD: A WRITER’S LIFE
VIRTUAL
May 18th, Tuesday, 7PM
Join in for the hometown book launch of Sharon CT’s own Laurie Lisle’s memoir, Word for Word: A Writer’s Life. Lisle will discuss her determination to become a published author from her early days in journalism to her groundbreaking biographies of legendary artists Georgia O’Keefe and Louise Nevelson. In this frank memoir, Lisle asks what a writer—or anyone devoted to self-expression in the arts—needs in order to flourish and find fulfillment in work and explores how the private and professional parts of a writer’s life intertwine. Free, $10 donation encouraged, $28.95 for signed hardcover copy of book, $17.95 for signed paperback copy.
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