Clockwise from top left: Bridge CEO and Founding Director Gwendolyn VanSant, Berkshire District Attorney Andrea Harrington, U.S. Attorneyâs Office Community Outreach Specialist Cara Henderson, Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Garland, Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Casey Anderson, Assistant U.S. Attorney Deepika Bains Shukla and Berkshire District Attorneyâs Office Community Engagement Director Bryan House attended a listening session on community safety Monday during Bridgeâs Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service on Zoom. SCREEN SHOT BY DANNY JIN â THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE
What does freedom look like in 2021?
Thatâs the question Gwendolyn VanSant, CEO and founding director of Bridge, asked participants Monday, leading off the Lee nonprofitâs Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service on Zoom.
Editor s Note
This is the third part of a three-part series in which artistic directors reflect on COVID-19âs effects on their theatrical season in 2020 and going forward.
The artistic directors of Barrington Stage Company (Julianne Boyd), Berkshire Theatre Group (Kate Maguire), Chester Theatre Company (Daniel Elihu Kramer), Shakespeare& Company (Allyn Burrows), WAM Theatre (Kristen van Ginhoven), and Williamstown Theatre Festival (Mandy Greenfield) will discuss 2020 and lookahead to 2021 in a series of question- and-answer interviews weâre releasing two at a time.
The not-for-profit professional theater s acronymic name stands for Where Arts and Activism Meet. Van Ginhoven says she found inspiration to create WAM in Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn s 2009 book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.
Wednesdayâs violence at the U.S. Capitol, for many Black residents of Berkshire County, served as a jolting reminder that notions of white supremacy run rampant through the nation.
âThe laws might have shifted, but there have been generations of people who maintained the same mindset about the inferiority of people of color, that we are less than human, [that] this is âtheirâ country,â said Shirley Edgerton, a community organizer and cultural proficiency coach for Pittsfield Public Schools.
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âIf I ever had a doubt, yesterdayâs activities confirm the need for the NAACP and its mission.â
â Dennis Powell, president of the NAACPâs Berkshire County chapter, speaking of Wednesday s invasion of the U.S. Capitol
So long, 2020.
At midnight, we bid farewell to a year that many of us would like to forget. It was a year unlike any in recent memory, defined by a pandemic that has brought death, jobs losses and economic hardships to every corner of our country.
And yet, life continued on. We adapted, wore masks, marked milestones with loved ones over video calls and stayed home to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Babies were born, people fell in love and parents celebrated their kidsâ graduations. It may have been hard to see at times, but there was a bit of light during this dark period.