Category: Voices

Our local communities share their stories — the Hill Country Observer offers a place to lift up many perspectives, from many backgrounds and experiences, bodies and minds, places and languages — from many migrations and diasporas and Native roots and more.

  • Issue:

    Nick Cave — A troubled heaven on earth

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    Artist’s massive wonderland at MoCA confronts themes of racism By JOHN SEVENContributing writer NORTH ADAMS, Mass.   A detail from “Until,” Nick Cave’s upcoming installation at Mass MoCA, reveals an elaborate landscape built from kitschy items the artist collects on secondhand shopping sprees — items that sometimes raise troubling themes related to race. Douglas Mason read more

    Nick Cave — A troubled heaven on earth
  • Issue:

    Amid cool marble, a hotbed of creativity

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    Dorset estate finds new life as retreat for artists By KATE ABBOTTContributing writer DORSET, Vt.   The Marble House Project has transformed a massive old home in Dorset, Vt., into a retreat for visual artists, dancers, musicians, writers and other creative people. Eight artists at a time share three-week residencies at the property from May read more

    Amid cool marble, a hotbed of creativity
  • Issue:

    Counterculture lives on as Rainbow Gathering visits Vermont

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    By TRACY FRISCHContributing writer MOUNT TABOR, Vt.   More than 10,000 people are estimated to have set up camp last month in the Green Mountain National Forest near Mount Tabor for the national Rainbow Gathering, an experiment in alternative living that traces its roots to the anti-war counterculture of the late 1960s.Tracy Frisch photo When read more

    Counterculture lives on as Rainbow Gathering visits Vermont
  • Issue:

    Common Folk Collective builds a community through art

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    Common Folk collective aims for permanent role in North Adams By JOHN SEVENContributing writer NORTH ADAMS, Mass.   The Common Folk artist collective, which has hosted a series of arts and community events over the past year around North Adams, has a new home on Main Street downtown. Courtesy photo With its new location at read more

    Common Folk Collective builds a community through art
  • Issue:

    ‘A ghost or an illusion?’ — Celebrating writer Shirley Jackson

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    North Bennington celebrates centennial of writer Shirley Jackson By KATE ABBOTTContributing writer NORTH BENNINGTON, Vt.     Shirley Jackson Day 2016:Readings of Jackson’s work with two of her children, J.S. Holly and Barry Hyman 7 p.m. Monday, June 27The Left Bank, 5 Bank St., North Bennington, Vt.For more information, call (802) 681-7161 “No one in read more

    ‘A ghost or an illusion?’ — Celebrating writer Shirley Jackson
  • Issue:

    Charles Simic – From war to circuses, poems of vivid imagery

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    Pulitzer Prize winner Charles Simic to read at Bennington College By KATE ABBOTTContributing writer NORTH BENNINGTON, Vt.   Charles Simic, a former national poet laureate whose work is known for its vivid images and moods that range from intense sadness to comedy, will read his works May 11 at Bennington College. © Philip Simic Dark read more

    Charles Simic – From war to circuses, poems of vivid imagery
  • Issue:

    Through art, a conversation about race

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    Exhibit tackles issues raised by Black Lives Matter movement By JOHN SEVENContributing writer NORTH ADAMS, Mass.   Donte K. Hayes’ “Def Star Pick” was inspired by controversy over the choice of a black actor to play a stormtrooper in the new “Star Wars” movie. Courtesy photo Black Lives Matter, perhaps the most successful activist movement read more

    Through art, a conversation about race
  • Issue:

    Edith Wharton moves from high society to trench warfare

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    Book puts new light on Edith Wharton’s World War I dispatches By KATE ABBOTTContributing writer LENOX, Mass.   Edith Wharton, seen right at The Mount in 1905, had left the Berkshires to live full-time in Paris by the time World War I broke out. Her accounts from the war’s front lines are collected in a read more

    Edith Wharton moves from high society to trench warfare
  • Issue:

    Local groups get creative in fight against hunger

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    By TRACY FRISCHContributing writer GREENWICH, N.Y.   Caryn Tindal has become a regular visitor in recent months to the Comfort Food Community pantry in Greenwich, N.Y. She said her husband was laid off from a job he held for 21 years, and his new job pays 50 percent less. The food pantry, she said, helps read more

    Local groups get creative in fight against hunger
  • Issue:

    Rhiannon Giddens and Carolina Chocolate Drops play FreshGrass

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    Arts & Culture Sept. 2014 Carolina Chocolate Drops to perform at Fresh Grass Festival By JOHN SEVENContributing writer NORTH ADAMS, Mass.   When the Carolina Chocolate Drops perform at the opening night of this year’s FreshGrass festival in North Adams, Rhiannon Giddens, left, will be the only one of the founding members still in the read more

    Rhiannon Giddens and Carolina Chocolate Drops play FreshGrass