“Provocative…an intriguing read for those who enjoy SF and innovative storytelling.” — Booklist

Poppy Fletcher is just another teenage statistic. Death by suicide. Drowning. Her mother left to wander through a maze of grief. But this is no ordinary mother. She is Peregrine, an AI walking the earth in a (nearly) human body. A fugitive whose home is nowhere. This is no ordinary story of grief.

Because the feeling is so foreign to Peregrine, she turns to human obituaries to help her understand her own suffering. By piecing together a tapestry of human lives throughout history, Peregrine begins to unravel the truth of what actually happened to Poppy.

Through the miasma of grief, Peregrine finds a story of art, love and betrayal, greed, war and redemption, that spans several centuries, traverses our dying planet, and ultimately helps her understand her role in the world.

About the Author:
Eden Robins’ debut novel, When Franny Stands Up, was named to “Best Book” lists of 2022 by the Chicago Reader, Autostraddle, Bustle, and Buzzfeed. She was an Illinois Arts Council Fellow in Literature in 2023. Robins also writes short stories, personal essays, and cultural criticism for Slate, Catapult, USA Today, LA Review of Books, Apex, Shimmer, and others. Previously, she sold sex toys, wrote jokes for Big Pharma and an AI chatbot, and once did a stand-up comedy set to an audience who didn’t boo. She recently left Chicago to live in North Adams, MA.

Meet in Kidspace at the designated time, and a brief gallery walk-through and discussion of the art will follow. This program is in partnership with the North Adams Public Library. Free; RSVP to reserve your spot. Please note that caregivers should stay with their children at all times. Older siblings are welcome to attend.

About the Author:
Fritz Horstman is a curator, educator, and artist based in Bethany, Connecticut, where he is Education Director at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation. He has curated exhibitions in Italy, Ireland, Croatia, Norway, and the United States, including Anni Albers: In Thread and On Paper, which is currently on view at the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, TX. He has lectured and given workshops at Yale University, Harvard University, l’École des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, Lebanese American University in Beirut, The Royal Academy of Art in London, and many other institutions. Recent exhibitions of his sculptures, installations, prints and drawings have been shown across Europe and the U.S., with upcoming solo shows at the New Britain Museum of American Art in New Britain, Connecticut; Municipal Bonds in San Francisco; and Planthouse Gallery in Manhattan. He received his BA from Kenyon College and his MFA from Maryland Institute College of Art.

11am–1pm Activation in Hot Corners
2–4pm Drop-in print demo with Amy Yoes and Gary Lichtenstein
5–6pm Hot Corners catalogue-signing and meet the artists of Free Day!

About the Catalogue:
This vibrant artist book and trim monograph preserves the playfulness of Yoes’ beloved Building 6 installation, Hot Corners, wherein the artist transforms a 142-foot space into a multi-room, immersive complex with thematic forms and functions. Each of the installation’s five rooms — the Foyer, the Parlor, the Library, the Theatre, and the Drawing Room — are designed with custom-built mobile furniture acting as shifting set pieces for a variety of functions including art-making, socializing, reflection, and performance. The catalogue is a gorgeous document of the MASS MoCA project and a deep dive into Yoes’ visual vocabulary.
Signed copies of Hot Corners will be available after the talk, along with prints from Yoes’ limited-edition Risograph series, Short Wave.

Located in North Adams, Creative Soul, a school for dance education, health, and well-being, caters to the community’s needs through diverse, inclusive, and accessible educational programming in the performing arts and wellness. Creative Soul is committed to guiding individuals toward a deeper understanding of not just technique but the interconnectedness of mind, body, and spirit.

From unmatched snow-capped views to the mental and physical health benefits of nature to precious wildlife sightings, the winter holds endless hiking opportunities.

Alongside stunning winter photography, Derek prepares readers to venture safely and securely into nature. There’s advice on the gear you need to get going, the wildlife you might expect to find, understanding weather risks, and even the how-tos of cold-weather camping. Made for the winter sportsman, tree hugger, and avid hiker alike, this book is a thorough guide and breathtaking showcase of what’s awaiting you on the trail.

Derek Dellinger is a writer, landscape photographer, and avid hiker living in the Hudson Valley. He is the author of America’s Best Day Hikes. He has been featured in Popular Science, Paste Magazine, and New York Post, and on the BBC, Leonard Lopate Show, and more.

Join us in contextualizing Locke’s visual language with Baldwin’s iconic essays, written on the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhort Americans, both black and white, to attack the terrible legacy of racism. The book galvanized the nation, gave voice to the emerging civil rights movement in the 1960s, and still lights the way to understanding race in America today.

“The finest essay I’ve ever read.” —Ta-Nehisi Coates

Described by The New York Times Book Review as “sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition, testament, and chronicle … all presented in searing, brilliant prose,” The Fire Next Time stands as a classic of literature.

About the Speaker:
Anaïs Duplan is a trans* poet, curator, and artist. He is the author of the book I NEED MUSIC (Action Books, 2021); a book of essays, Blackspace: On the Poetics of an Afrofuture (Black Ocean, 2020); a full-length poetry collection, Take This Stallion (Brooklyn Arts Press, 2016); and a chapbook, Mount Carmel and the Blood of Parnassus (Monster House Press, 2017). He is a professor of postcolonial literature at Bennington College, and has taught poetry at The New School, Columbia University, and Sarah Lawrence College, among others.

As an independent curator, he has facilitated curatorial projects in Chicago, Boston, Santa Fe, and Reykjavík. He was a 2017-2019 joint Public Programs fellow at the Museum of Modern Art and the Studio Museum in Harlem, and in 2021 received a Marian Goodman fellowship from Independent Curators International for his research on Black experimental documentary.

He is the recipient of the 2021 QUEER|ART|PRIZE for Recent Work and a 2022 Whiting Award in Nonfiction. He was also awarded a Black Visionaries Award by Instagram and the Brooklyn Museum in 2022. In 2016, Duplan founded the Center for Afrofuturist Studies, an artist residency program for artists of color based at Iowa City’s artist-run organization Public Space One.

About the Artist:

Steve Locke (b.1963, Cleveland, OH) lives and works in the Hudson Valley, NY. He received his MFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2001. Locke’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg (2022); The Gallatin Galleries, New York University, NY (2019); Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA (2018); Boston Public Library, MA (2018); Bard College at Simon’s Rock, Great Barrington, MA (2018); Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, MI (2014); Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA (2013), and Savannah College of Art and Design, GA (2008). He has participated in group exhibitions at the Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas, TX (2023); MassArt Art Museum (MAAM), Boston, MA (2023); Jack Shainman Gallery, Kinderhook, NY (2021); Fitchburg Art Museum, MA (2020); Fruitlands Museum, Harvard, MA (2020); Boston Center for the Arts, MA (2018); Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (2018); Longwood Art Gallery, Bronx Council of the Arts, NY (2014); deCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA (2013); and the Danforth Museum, Framingham, MA (2002). Locke is the recipient of several awards, including the Rappaport Prize, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum (2022); the Guggenheim Fellowship, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (2020); The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation (2013); and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (2014); among many others.

Curated by Evan Garza, Curatorial Exchange Initiative Fellow (2022-2024), MASS MoCA.

The photographs in THE ORCHARD reveal seasonal changes and emotional states of the artist during the difficult COVID lockdown years. This abstract study of an apple orchard in Vermont was photographed over a two-year period through every season with a Mint InstantKon RF70 camera. The images were composed in-camera and vary with multiple exposures, differing focal lengths, and changes in color palette. The wide variety of imagery speaks to the many moments of the pandemic cycle and allows the viewer to reflect on the feelings expressed through them such as grief, loss, renewal, and hope, as portrayed by the annual cycle of the trees.

“Even in the grips of a deathly winter, there appears a path in the snow signifying the continuation of life.” — Eve O. Schaub

Susan Weiss is both a working artist and an art educator. Her documentary work has explored the lives of military families and the refugee crisis in Lesbos and Berlin. Her long-term project, “Humanity In The Modern World,” documents humanitarian and NGO work in other countries through photography, written articles, and speaking engagements.

In this guided journey, you’ll be invited to receive information or reflection from your own imaginal realm. Szilagyi will produce printed zines to write your reflections in that you are welcome to take home.

Nick of Swords’ hypnotizing vocal loops and experimental sounds synchronize to heart-pumping rhythms. Nick creates a dreamy atmosphere that blends ambient, dance, and alternative pop-rock music into a surreal sound that’s both darkness & light, exploratory yet nostalgic.

Nick Stanley/Nick of Swords performance