OLLI: the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Berkshire Community College

Thank you to Jacob's Pillow for welcoming OLLI and for a wonderful program and performance with the Royal Ballet this month! Thank you to the Special Events Committee for all your hard work to make it happen!

Coming next Tuesday in-person at BCC: Paths Toward Purpose and Meaning Making

Join local a panel of local clergy for conversation about how their traditions understand purpose and meaning, and how that does and does not inform their own spiritual journeys.

Tuesday, July 16 at 1:00 p.m.
In-person at Berkshire Community College
Free and open to all.

Light refreshments following the program

Panelists include:
Rev. Sheila Sholes-Ross was ordained through American Baptist Churches and called as the 30th pastor of First Baptist Church of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, November 2013; historic as the church's first African-American female pastor.

Born in Worcester, raised in the Midwest, and ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2006, Rabbi David Weiner has served as the spiritual leader of Knesset Israel in Pittsfield for fifteen years. His areas of focus include interfaith pastoral care, classical biblical commentary (midrash), and adult and special needs education. He is a past president of the Pittsfield Area Council of Congregations.

Jim Armstrong is a native of Pittsfield and a lifelong member of the Catholic church, and now a member of St. Joseph Church on North Street. He spent 39 years teaching, many years in local Catholic Schools. Jim has also served as a hospital chaplain at BMC.

Moderated by Rev. Carol Allman-Morton, executive director of OLLI at BCC and Unitarian Universalist minister at the UU Meeting of South Berkshire in Housatonic, MA. Unitarian Universalist Meeting of South Berkshire (UUMSB)

Sponsored by Pittsfield Area Clergy Council and OLLI at Berkshire Community College

On Friday, July 12, at the Becket Athenaeum: Becket-Washington's Community Library at 10 a.m. - join Professor Tom Tyning for a free event called "Reptiles of the Berkshires": https://bit.ly/3LfSG0f

Reptiles of the Berkshires with Tom Tyning — Becket Athenaeum: Becket & Washington Community Library RSVP appreciated.

Thank you Berkshire Magazine! If folks are interested in signing up for the talk with Jake Tapper on Tuesday, July 9 at noon, learn more here: https://berkshireolli.org/event-5717920

CNN anchor and chief Washington correspondent Jake Tapper, who will be co-moderating the Biden/Trump debate today (Thursday) at 9 p.m. ET, is featured in the July issue of Berkshire Magazine. Tapper is the best-selling author of six books, most recently “All The Demons Are Here,” which will be released in paperback on July 2. His debut novel, “The Hellfire Club,” and its sequel, “The Devil May Dance,” were New York Times best-sellers. And among his nonfiction books is the 2012 bestseller “The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor,” which was adapted into a film in 2019. Tapper will be in conversation with Berkshire Magazine Editor-in-Chief Anastasia Stanmeyer by Zoom on Tuesday, July 9, for the Berkshire OLLI Distinguished Speaker Series. Leading up to the talk, Anastasia chatted with Tapper about his books and more. Read the interview in “Fiction with a Dose of Reality,” in the July issue. Read rhetorical story here, too: https://berkshiremag.com/july-24/fiction-with-a-dose-of-reality

Thank you to the volunteers who helped out Barrington Stage Company for La Cage aux Folles this weekend! OLLI representing!

Thank you to to Norman Rockwell Museum for welcoming an OLLI at BCC private tour. Thank you Skip Doyle for a wonderful workshop and tour for our members (and for remembering to take a photo!)

Course Spotlight! International Folk Dancing | Elaine Sohn
Thursdays - 9:30 - 11:00 a.m. | Six Sessions - 6/20, 6/27, 7/11, 7/18, 7/25, 8/1
In-person at Simon's Rock, Great Barrington
Learn more and register: https://berkshireolli.org/R102InternationalFolkDancingSummer24

Learning international folk dances is primarily fun. We move, burn calories, and use our brain to remember the steps. We also learn about the culture and music of different countries listening to the lyrics and of course the rhythms and instruments which may be new to us. Dancing brings us together in a fun and beneficial way. So join us to learn dances from around the world - Greece, Israel, Romania, Macedonia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Italy, Ukraine, and others. We will also do some American line dances. No partners are necessary.

Elaine Sohn has been teaching folk dancing since her college days at NYU. She currently teaches at a Senior Center in Brooklyn Heights, and at the Brooklyn College Lifelong Learning Program. For more than 30 years, she has led the Brooklyn Heights International Folk Dance group, as well as teaching for three summers for OLLI at BCC. Although teaching English to immigrant adults is her primary passion, teaching folk dancing is a close second.

Course Spotlight: New York Fashion Week 101 | Bonnie Bien
Wednesdays - 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. | Five Sessions - 7/10, 7/17, 7/24, 7/31, 8/7
In-person at Berkshire Community College
Learn more and register: https://berkshireolli.org/W104NYFashionWeek101Summer24

We will take a deep dive into the nuts and bolts of New York Fashion Week. We will start by showing clips of various New York fashion shows. We will then explore what goes into preparing a show, including how venues, sponsorships, and seating for a show can affect its success. Who designers and their staffs invite such as media, editors, personal friends etc. can amplify their clothing lines and how hiring the right production team, photographers, stylists, video, and models can extend their reach within the fashion industry and among consumers.

Bonnie Bien studied film at Hunter College. She is the founder of La Presse PR, a rare public relations and marketing company that specializes in the unique requirements of the fashion industry. Bonnie, is renowned for her years of established experience in the business of fashion and fashion related communications. She developed her distinctive eye for fashion as a team member at the prestigious Revillion firm. There she developed the couture collections with some of the most distinguished names in couture fashion. She worked with legendary designers like Hubert De Givenchy and Valentino. Bonnie’s confidences have been nurtured and developed over years of working behind-the-scene, producing fashion shows, special events, press conferences, photos shoots and reality TV shows. La Presse PR represents some of the most prominent designers and emerging stars.

Berkshire OLLI - W104 New York Fashion Week 101 Summer 24 OLLI: the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Berkshire Community CollegePartners in education with Williams College, Bard College at Simon's Rock and the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts [email protected]

Course Spotlight: Theater Workshop | Maggie Barkan
Fridays 1:30 - 3:00 p.m. | Six Sessions - 6/21, 6/28, 7/12, 7/19, 7/26, 8/2
In-person at Simon's Rock, Great Barrington
Limit: 20
Learn more and register: https://berkshireolli.org/F102TheaterWorkshopSummer24

Members of this course will participate in theater activities from classic sources such as Viola Spolin's Story Theater and Ann Bogart's Viewpoints. Participants become adept at creating scenes from a variety of texts from Aesop's Fables to a letter to the editor on women's rights. Working in small groups we will discover and act out the key dramatic moments in each story. We will move, learn to use our voices, but never be required to memorize.

Maggie Roberts Barkin has acted and sung onstage and taught theater for over 50 years. She has worked under directors using a variety of methods on stages from the Yale Repertory Theater to dinner theater in Johnson City Tennessee. She studied theater at Emerson College and received her BFA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Berkshire OLLI - F102 Theater Workshop Summer 24 OLLI: the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Berkshire Community CollegePartners in education with Williams College, Bard College at Simon's Rock and the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts [email protected]

Course Spotlight: Are Robots Moral? The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence Gerol Petruzella
Tuesdays - 5:00 - 6:30 p.m. | Six Sessions - 6/11, 6/18, 6/25, 7/2, 7/9, 7/16
In-person at Williams College
Limit: 40
Learn more and register: https://berkshireolli.org/T106AreRobotsMoralSummer24

While generative AI is only a couple of years old, philosophers have been identifying and grappling for centuries with the moral implications of tools that behave like humans. Can AI earn blame, or praise, for its decisions? When does human-like behavior deserve moral consideration and when not? Are we truly as clear as we imagine about what, exactly, consciousness is? Do ethics apply only to biological things, and if so, why is that? If generative AI has the potential to become self-aware, is it immoral to prevent it? In this course we will use philosophers’, and others', writings - and sometimes generative AI tools themselves to address some of the deepest ethical questions we're suddenly being compelled to answer, as a society, with the explosive growth of generative AI, from commerce to the arts to education to the military to health care.

Gerol Petruzella holds a Ph.D. in philosophy, with concentrations in ethics and logic. He is currently Academic Technology Consultant at Williams College, and previously worked as Director of Academic Technology at MCLA, as well as Visiting Associate Professor in philosophy.

Berkshire OLLI - T106 Are Robots Moral Summer 24 OLLI: the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Berkshire Community CollegePartners in education with Williams College, Bard College at Simon's Rock and the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts [email protected]

Did You Know: The Harlem Renaissance has deep roots in the Berkshires?
Explore the exciting history of the Harlem Renaissance, the Roaring Twenties, and Science and Medicine in the 1920s.
THE 1920s PROJECT - REGISTER NOW!
berkshireolli.org/1920sProject2024
(Images: James Weldon Johnson and WEB DuBois)

Berkshire OLLI - 1920s Project 2024 OLLI: the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Berkshire Community College Partners in education with Williams College, Bard College at Simon's Rock and the Massachusetts College of Liberal [email protected]

Did You Know: There are parallels between today and the 1920’s?
Explore the exciting history of the Harlem Renaissance, the Roaring Twenties, and Science and Medicine in the 1920s.
THE 1920s PROJECT - REGISTER NOW!

Berkshire OLLI - 1920s Project 2024 OLLI: the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Berkshire Community College Partners in education with Williams College, Bard College at Simon's Rock and the Massachusetts College of Liberal [email protected]

What a great weekend at the Mona Sherman Memorial Lecture with Ari Melber! A full house, wonderful lecture and great questions! Thank you to Mona's family and friends for your generous gifts to support this free and open to the public event. Thank you to the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center for your hospitality and to all the amazing staff that made this happen! Thank you to Berkshire Gas for your support for the event!

Course Spotlight! Whence The Muse: Four Writers on Writing
Instructors: Richard Matturro, Bob Reiss, Kate Sontag and Steven Somkin
Mondays 3:30 - 5:00 p.m.
6/10, 6/17, 6/24, 7/1
Location: Berkshire Community College

You begin with a blank sheet and an inspiration, but how do you get from there to the finished work of art: a poem, a play, a short story, or a novel? Four local authors will talk about how they became writers and the creative process by which an imaginative spark takes final shape in words.

https://youtu.be/ywHn9CEzd0E

Learn more and register: https://berkshireolli.org/M103WhencetheMuseSummer24

Whence The Muse

A powerful program!

OLLI at BCC Summer Courses are open for registration!
www.berkshireolli.org/Summer2024
We can't wait to see you in class, on the trail, or on the dance floor!

Berkshire OLLI - Summer 2024 Class Schedule & Links to Course Descriptions OLLI: the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Berkshire Community College Partners in education with Williams College, Bard College at Simon's Rock and the Massachusetts College of Liberal [email protected]

Summer 2024 Open House!
Wednesday, May 8, 3:00 - 4:30 p.m.
In-person at BCC.
Free and open to the public.
Please register in advance - https://berkshireolli.org/event-5702414

Meet our Summer 2024 instructors and other OLLI members, take a tour of the BCC campus, and have some fun!

Learn more about OLLI at BCC at www.berkshireolli.org

Berkshire OLLI - OLLI Summer 2024 Open House OLLI: the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Berkshire Community College Partners in education with Williams College, Bard College at Simon's Rock and the Massachusetts College of Liberal [email protected]

Thank you for the shout out! And a great list!

After working for years, retirement can be a challenging transition time. Here are 5 suggestions to fill your calendar and give you purpose!

1. Build an exercise routine - find what works for you. If possible, join a local community center or gym.

2. Volunteer! Share your wisdom and time with others. A good place to start looking for volunteer opportunities is the Nonprofit Center of the Berkshires website. There's a "Get on Board! Berkshires" event on April 25 to match volunteers with nonprofits that need board members.

3. Take classes! It’s the perfect time in your life to dive into your interest areas. Check out OLLI: the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Berkshire Community College at Berkshire Community College.

Get into gardening. Doesn’t matter if it’s a planter box, a small garden plot, or volunteering at Berkshire Botanical Gardens.

If you miss the day-to-day routine of working, consider a part-time job. There are lots of opportunities in and around the Berkshires.

We are a co-sponsor for this important concert and conversation on May 15 at 7 p.m. - ticket information below!

Tickets are now available for the rescheduled:
A Family Revealed: From Slavery to Hope
Wednesday, May 15 at 7 p.m.
https://tinyurl.com/2s3nmjnz
Unitarian Universalist Meeting of South Berkshire
1089 Main Street, Housatonic, MA

Tickets:
$10 per adult
Free for students, youth 17 and under, and those holding WIC, EBT/SNAP, or ConnectorCare cards.

All are welcome to a concert and conversation featuring folk singer and social activist Reggie Harris and educator Wallis Wickham Raemer discussing the discovery and development of their special journey as two descendants of a Confederate enslaver.

Onstage together, in an honest and heartfelt interaction, these two cousins, one black and one white, discuss what it has been to discover each other’s existence and then navigate deeply held feelings; pain, and hope in the truth of a divided slavery-colored past. Since 2012, they have opened themselves to the task of engaging hope out of division as they embraced each other as cousins.

To underscore the experience, Reggie, a prominent musician and interpreter of historical movements for social change, punctuates their story with original songs "Hickory Hill," "Windows of the Heart" and more.

Don’t miss this opportunity to hear and see a model of what is possible when truth is acknowledged and revealed with a commitment to not being defined by the past. An audience Q and A follows the dialogue.

This program is sponsored by:
Unitarian Universalist Meeting of South Berkshire
Multicultural BRIDGE
NAACP Berkshire Branch
OLLI at Berkshire Community College

Register Today! - https://tinyurl.com/2s3nmjnz

See the latest Ukraine update from Jim Brooke (recorded 4/9/24) -

April 2024 Update on Ukraine with James Brooke An online discussion with former New York Times foreign correspondent and former Ukraine reporter James Brooke. Veteran foreign correspondent James Brooke is...

OLLI at BCC went to the eclipse! It was amazing!

In-person OLLI classes are postponed or moved to zoom today, check your email for a notice from your instructor. Zoom classes will proceed as usual.

BCC campus is closed today and staff are not in the office.

Stay safe out there!

This Spring OLLI at BCC will hold courses online and at more locations around Berkshire County than since 2019. Register today!

Berkshire OLLI - Join The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Berkshire Community College in western Massachusetts is a dynamic learning community with over 1,500 members that offers 200+ terrific programs a year, including four semesters of courses, lectures, special events and trips, shared interest groups, and more!....

Happy Spring! What a great day to register for classes at OLLI at BCC!

Berkshire OLLI - Join The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Berkshire Community College in western Massachusetts is a dynamic learning community with over 1,500 members that offers 200+ terrific programs a year, including four semesters of courses, lectures, special events and trips, shared interest groups, and more!....

Congratulations!!

Course Spotlight: Anna Karenina and the Meaning of Life | Julie Cassiday
Thursdays 4:00 - 5:30 p.m. | Five Sessions - 4/4, 4/18, 4/25, 5/2, 5/9
In-person at Williams College
Limit: 50
Learn more and register: https://berkshireolli.org/R106AnnaKareninaSpring24

Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina regularly appears on critics’ lists of “best book ever written” for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the directness with which Tolstoy takes on life’s most pressing questions. Why are some families happy, while others encounter misery on misery? What work must we all do to give our lives meaning? And most pressing of all, what do our lives mean, given that we all, sooner or later, die? This course will explore how Tolstoy invested his take on the nineteenth-century novel of adultery with his own answers to life’s accursed questions, as well as what the great Russian author believed our lives ultimately mean.

Julie Cassiday has taught Russian language, literature, and culture, as well as comparative literature, at Williams College for the past thirty years. Her research focuses on performance, in the broadest sense of this word, in Russian culture. She has published a wide variety of scholarly articles on topics ranging from Stalinist film to the so-called cult of personality surrounding Vladimir Putin. In 2023, she published her second book, which examines gender and sexuality in post-Soviet popular culture, Russian Style: Performing Gender, Power, and Putinism, with the University of Wisconsin Press.

Berkshire OLLI - R106 Anna Karenina and the Meaning of Life Spring 24 Julie Cassiday has taught Russian language, literature, and culture, as well ascomparativeliterature, at Williams College for the past thirty years. Her research focuses on performance, in the broadest sense of this word, in Russian culture. She has published a wide variety of scholarly articles on...

Have you been thinking about joining OLLI at BCC, or the Villages of the Berkshires, Inc. and want to learn more? Come to a joint information session at Berkshire South Regional Community Center! On Thursday, March 28 at 3 p.m. Learn more and register here:

Berkshire OLLI - Villages of the Berkshires Informational Session OLLI at BCC is a dynamic learning community with over 1,500 members that offers 200+ terrific programs a year, including four semesters of courses, lectures, special events and trips, shared interest groups, and more! OLLI programs meet online, in-person around Berkshire County, and sometimes, both!

Course Spotlight: Berkshire Previews | Naomi Spatz and Guests
Thursdays 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. | Six Sessions on Zoom - 4/4, 4/11, 4/18, 4/25, 5/2, 5/9
Learn more and register: https://berkshireolli.org/R102BerkshirePreviewsSpring24

The course opens with a Critics Panel where major Berkshire critics discuss their expectations for the 2024 theatre season and their thoughts about the future of local theatre. In subsequent weeks, ten Artistic Directors -- from Williamstown in the north to Great Barrington in the south, from Chester in the east to Bridge in the West -- will reveal their season of new plays and old favorites. Each class will host two artistic directors, each for 45 minutes, with time for audience questions.

Plan your summer with 10 Artistic Directors.

April 4 Critics Panel: Peter Bergman, Jeff Borak, Macey Levin, Barbara Waldinger, Jeannie Woods

April 11 11:30, Barrington Stage: Alan Paul
12:15, Bridge Street Theatre: John Sowle & Steven Patterson

April 18 11:30, Berkshire Theatre: Kate Maguire
12:15, Williamstown Theatre: Jenny Gersten & Ralph Piccarelli

April 25 11:30, Great Barrington Public: Jim Frangione
12:15, Mac-Hayden Theatre: John Saunders

May 2 11:30, Shakespeare & Co: Allyn Burrows
12:15, Jacob’s Pillow: Pam Tatge

May 9 11:30, Berkshire Opera: Jonathan Loy
12:15, Chester Theatre: Tara Franklin & James Barry

Naomi Spatz has hosted this course for ten years, a friendly favorite for OLLI members to plan their summer. While she and her husband, playwright Steven Somkin, are now full-time residents of Lenox, they were New Yorkers who had their own theater production company specializing in readings of new plays. Naomi also created Teachers Night on Broadway for the United Federation of Teachers, the Theatre Development Fund and the League of American Theatres and Producers; and Kids Day on Broadway for NYC schools. She graduated from Cornell where she studied economics and played basketball. She lived in London for four years, studying languages while working for an international organization and going to the theater.

Berkshire OLLI - R102 Berkshire Previews Spring 24 Naomi Spatzhas hosted this course for ten years, a friendly favorite for OLLI members to plan their summer. While she and her husband, playwright Steven Somkin, are now full-time residents of Lenox, they were New Yorkers who had their own theater production company specializing in readings of new pl...

Course Spotlight: The Roaring Twenties | Stacy Wallach
Mondays 2:30 - 4:00 p.m. | Six Sessions - 4/1, 4/8, 4/29, 5/6, 5/13, 5/20
Hybrid - Zoom and In-person at BCC
Learn more and register: https://berkshireolli.org/M104RoaringTwentiesSpring24/
Part of the 1920s Project

This course will provide a general introduction to the so-called “Roaring Twenties” and will be accompanied in the spring semester and followed in the summer semester by in-depth courses on specific aspects of the Twenties.

We will examine many of the popular myths about the Twenties, delineate how much of those myths were true, and focus on the often-harsh realities of the Twenties for different areas of the country and their varied populations. We’ll look behind the popular myths and try to understand the essential economics, the politics, and the rapidly changing culture.

Many have drawn parallels or even congruences between significant events and trends of the 1920s with those of the 2020s; and we’ll examine to what extent those apparent parallels are both true and useful.

Part One of this course will include six classes in the spring semester. Part Two will be in the summer semester.

Stacy Wallach has been an OLLI instructor, mostly focused on American history, since 2007. Stacy is a graduate of the Mount Hermon School, Swarthmore College, and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. His instructional mode is visual -- lots of PowerPoint photos, maps, and charts.

Berkshire OLLI - M104 The Roaring Twenties Spring 24 We will examine many of the popular myths about the Twenties, delineate how much of those myths were true, and focus on the often-harsh realities of the Twenties for different areas of the country and their varied populations. We’ll look behind the popular myths and try to understand the essential...

Course Spotlight - The Gilded Age in the Berkshires | Carole Owens
Wednesdays 1:30 - 3:00 p.m. | Four Sessions - 4/3, 4/10, 4/17, 4/24
In-person at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, Great Barrington
Learn more and register: https://berkshireolli.org/W105TheGildedAgeintheBerkshiresSpring24

The Gilded Age in the Berkshires examines the exciting half-century, from 1865 - 1917, in Berkshire County. There were great strides in medicine, women’s rights, arts and education. In the run up to the Civil War, it seemed as if the small, quiet Berkshires were the center of American cultural development. Writers, painters, philosophers and theologians gathered in what they called the American Lake District. After the Civil War the Gilded elite selected the Berkshires for their “cottages” and the rural county was changed forever.

Carole Owens has written 12 books on American history. She writes regularly for the Edge and the Berkshire Eagle as well as being the founder of the bimonthly Stockbridge Updates. Owens earned her PhD in history from Yeshiva University.

Berkshire OLLI - W105 The Gilded Age in the Berkshires Spring 24 Carole Owenshas written 12 books on American history. Shewritesregularlyfor the Edge and the Berkshire Eagle as well asbeing thefounder of the bimonthly Stockbridge Updates.  Owensearned her PhD in history from Yeshiva University