The Urban Theater Company is visiting Holyoke during the weekend of September 22 to 24. As part of the celebration of The 2nd Annual Taste of South Holyoke Festival, they will present ‘La Gringa’ at El Mercado, 413 Main Street in South Holyoke. We had a conversation on stage, with the whole cast and crew, about their experience visiting Holyoke and their interaction with students from Morgan School, Kelly School, and LightHouse, who attended their rehearsal, previous to the recording of this podcast session.   Palante Theater Company is an affiliated organization of the Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts, MiFA, … Continue reading La Gringa in Holyoke

Jharikem Borrero Irrizarry is the Outreach Coordinator at Nuestras Raíces. On this session, she shares information about the 25th Anniversary celebration of this organization, and invites the public to their Harvest Festival, happening on September 30th.   Continue reading Jharikem Borrero Irrizarry – Nuestras Raíces Harvest Festival

Rebel Diaz (Rebellions in Spanish as a single word), is a Hip Hop project hailing from The Bronx and Chicago. Its members, Chilean brothers Rodrigo Venegas, a.k.a. RodStarz, and Gonzalo Venegas, a.k.a. G1, along with DJ Illanoiz, visited the Pioneer Valley on September 9th and they offered a free educational workshop about Hip Hop and Activism, at the Wistariahurst Museum, in Holyoke. That evening, they also performed at the Millpond Live in Easthampton. The morning after, we got together at the plasma media lab, to talk about their experiences in Holyoke and Easthampton, and their work as Hip Hop artists, educators, … Continue reading REBEL DIAZ IN HOLYOKE

Meet Alexis Diaz. A Holyoke promise. A young man on the path to success, sharing his story and experiences in LightHouse, The Holyoke Youth Commission, The Sustainable Holyoke Youth Leadership Initiative’s Summit in Martha’s Vineyard, a trip to Boston with Commissioner Will Morales, being invited to Barrios Unidos in Santa Cruz, CA, and now, beginning a new chapter at Holyoke Community College. These are the stories worth of sharing and celebrating. This is our youth and future leaders.   Continue reading Alexis Diaz

Anne Thalheimer joins us for a randomness session. We talked about the Holyoke Local Cultural Council, and the funding opportunities they provide for the Holyoke community. The application for grants opens on September 1st and the deadline is October 16th. You can visit the official Holyoke Local Cultural Council website, for more information. Also, they have a Facebook Page. If you are interested in applying for a grant, you can follow this link. Then, we talked about different projects Anne is working on: My Monster Hat, A Roller Derby comic book, and music. This is the song mentioned by Anne during … Continue reading Anne Thalheimer – The Holyoke Local Cultural Council, followed by a random conversation