Press

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — BBEC Executive Director, A.J. Communication Coordinator, Brianna, and intern Aike, had the pleasure of stopping into Uplift Barber Studio to sit down with Carleton Rose to learn more about himself, his business, and ongoing motivations. Watch the full interview using the link in our bio

Watch Carlton Rose’s full interview using the link below! 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Housing affordability and availability challenges affect all 32 municipalities in Berkshire County, but the ways they manifest can vary.

For Black people living in Berkshire County, the “housing crisis” isn’t new. Long before the pandemic-induced market changes sent housing prices climbing up the income scale, Black people in the county, and across the nation, faced barriers that kept homeownership and its wealth-generating benefits out of reach for many.

Two years ago, the Berkshire Branch of the NAACP released a report that detailed the history of redlining and other discriminatory housing practices in Pittsfield’s West Side neighborhood.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — At a crucial moment for local journalism, Warren Dews Jr., publisher and vice president of Capital Region Independent Media, visited the nation’s capital to advocate on behalf of small newspapers facing increasingly difficult times.

Capital Region Independent Media publishes the Ravena News-Herald, Greenville Pioneer, The Columbia Paper, Granville Sentinel, Whitehall Times, Lakes Region Free Press and Washington County Free Press, and two websites, TheUpstater.com and NYVTmedia.com.

Dews’ visit was part of a larger effort to push for legislative support to protect local journalism, which is under pressure from rising competition and AI-driven content aggregation. The event organized by the News Media Alliance and dubbed the “Support Journalism Fly-In” was attended by representatives from news organizations from around the country.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Writer and Civil Rights activist James Baldwin followed in the footsteps of Christ’s apostles, preaching a gospel that had the power to change the world.

So believes writer Jamaica Kincaid, who compared the world’s response to Baldwin to the Corinthians and Galatians who ignored St. Paul’s missives.

“You cannot believe that ‘The Fire Next Time,’ or all of those essays, didn’t immediately — on being seen by contemporary Galatians and Corinthians — change the world, and make it into something not only better: different,” Kincaid said at an event Thursday afternoon marking Baldwin’s centennial.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The city has received $100,000 toward developing digital equity.

On Tuesday, the City Council accepted a $99,972 Digital Equity Implementation Grant from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. It will expand public Wi-Fi to Durant Park, bring wayfinding for Wi-Fi to the downtown area, and fund a digital equity ambassador to get the word out to the community.

Pittsfield is the first of 14 local communities to participate in the digital equity planning project through the Massachusetts Broadband Institute and the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission.  It was selected last year.

ADAMS, Mass. — The only sit-down restaurant of its kind in town has staged its last dinner shift.

The Firehouse Café & Bistro announced on Facebook last week that it would be transitioning into catering. A venture of Chef Xavier Jones and co-owner Warren Dews Jr., who also run Bigg Daddy’s Philly Steak House in North Adams, the eatery closed due to a “lack of support,” Jones said Monday.

“We needed to go in a different direction,” he said. “I think it’s because Adams doesn’t have any reason for you to come and shop. You eat where you do your shopping, where you take care of business.”

ADAMS, Mass. — No more design plans, concepts or renderings: The Greylock Glen Outdoor Center has arrived.

Start with the “Great Hall” — or the public, ski lodge-like area with a massive fireplace, the expansive kitchen and dining/event space that will be run by Chez Hospitality Group, and an environmental education and mixed-use room, which will primarily be used by Mass Audubon.

Then there’s an exhibition space that looks like a mini-museum and will connect to displays on the trail; a first-aid/medical room; and a retail space that could be an extension of the food service Chez Hospitality offers, or town-run, or run by another vendor.

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — The W.E.B. Du Bois Sculpture Project has been awarded $50,000 from the Massachusetts Office of Economic Development for completion of a statue of W.E.B. Du Bois to be sited in front of the Mason Public Library on Main Street in Great Barrington.

The funding was requested by State Sen. Paul Mark (D – Berkshire, Hampden, Franklin, and Hampshire District), chair of the state’s Joint Committee on Tourism, Arts, and Cultural Development. “Few people know that Du Bois—a civil rights giant and founder of the NAACP—was born and raised in Great Barrington,” said Sen. Mark. “These funds will help complete the monument and promote Black history and tourism in the Berkshires.”

“We are grateful to Sen. Mark for supporting our efforts to recognize Du Bois and [are] eager to join him in promoting Black history in the Berkshires,” said Ari Zorn, co-chair of the W.E.B. Du Bois Sculpture Project.

DALTON, Mass. — By any reasonable measure, Keith Willis has been a success in sports and in life.

And the former NFL tight end probably inspired a little awe among the Wahconah High School student-athletes who filled the Nessacus Middle School auditorium on Wednesday evening.

But he did not come to show off. He came to show those students how to be winners themselves.

“How many think it’s cool that I played for five different NFL teams?” Willis said, asking for a show of hands from the youngsters. “It’s pretty cool, right?

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — An event in Ghana’s capital on Tuesday marked the death of scholar and civil rights architect W.E.B. Du Bois there more than six decades ago.

A wreath-laying and ground-breaking in Accra for a new museum in Du Bois’ honor was attended by dignitaries and celebrities, including Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo and rap star E.L. Akofa Ejeni Aseidu, according to the Modern Ghana news website.

“The sod cutting was done by Akufo-Addo who was the guest of honor,” the article says. “The President laid the wreath on behalf of the people of Ghana.”

SHEFFIELD, Mass. — Just four months ago, Lisa Shepperson had never heard of Elizabeth Freeman.

But this spring, she learned that Freeman was not only her ancestor, but the first African American woman in Massachusetts to successfully file a lawsuit for her freedom. What’s more, Shepperson learned that she was Freeman’s first living descendant who genealogists and historians had been able to identify.

“I am standing here, the ninth generation of Elizabeth Freeman, with graciousness and humbleness,” Shepperson said Wednesday morning from the grounds of Ashley House, where Freeman was enslaved. It’s also the location, where Freeman overheard Col. John Ashley and other prominent men discussing the 1780 Massachusetts Constitution — that declared “all men are born free and equal” — which started her pursuit of freedom. 

STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. — Lisa Shepperson fluttered her eyelashes to stop her tears as she stood at the faded tombstone of Elizabeth Freeman on Monday morning. She patted the centuries-old tablet with her manicured hand, as if comforting a longtime friend.

It was the first time she saw the burial site of her ancestor at Stockbridge Cemetery. It was only three months ago that Shepperson found out she was a direct descendant of the formerly enslaved woman whose lawsuit for her freedom in 1781, helped propel Massachusetts to abolish slavery in the state.

Before then, she had not heard of Freeman until that unexpected call from a genealogist. But now, standing there, Shepperson said she could not help but feel a wave of joy rush “past my feet, to my heart, to my head, and out towards God.”

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — Starting Memorial Day weekend and continuing long past Labor Day, myriads of Americans light up the briquettes and treat their tastebuds to shared feasts centered around grilled chicken, pulled pork, and barbecued ribs. But for many, the time, patience, and skill required to get the right flavor and tenderness can feel a bit daunting. If you are one of the many—or you’re looking for great food that’s ready to go without all the fuss—Momma Lo’s BBQ in Great Barrington is here to help.

According to FOOD52 writer Arlyn Osborne, in “A Brief History of the American Cookout,”the origins of American barbecue date back to the late 1400s, when Spanish explorers landed in the Caribbean, “where they came across an indigenous tribe known as the Taíno slow-cooking on wooden frames.” Traveling north, they took the new cooking technique (called “barbacoa,” which later became “barbecue”) with them.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Each time Pittsfield Attorney Bill Martin takes on a new client involved in a liquor license transfer, he worries he’ll come across a new hiccup.

“It feels a little bit like ‘Mother, may I?’” he said. “You do your best, and then you get your homework corrected, and you find out that you got a 97 when you needed 100. So, you gotta go back and do it again.”

When representing his clients Ronny and Louise Brizan, the owners of BB’s Hot Spot, he didn’t get the perfect score his clients needed.

The Caribbean restaurant has been open at its new location at 455 North St. since Jan. 1, but only got its liquor license on May 22. For the first five months of trying to establish themselves as a full-service eatery, the Brizans couldn’t serve liquor.

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — The former Clinton A.M.E. Zion Church building on Elm Court, once the center of its community, has been stripped to its studs and will soon be propped up with steel beams and cross timbers.

The peeled-back paint on one wall in what was once the sanctuary reveals most of the letters of the words: “The Lord Is In His Holy Temple.”

And there are some holes in the wooden floors on which generations of the town’s African American community stepped as they flowed in and out for well over a century. 

Including, at one point, town native W.E.B. Du Bois. Du Bois went on to be a scholar, writer, poet, professor and the architect of the civil rights movement as a co-founder of the NAACP.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Savannah Smith, 11, thought she was going to the North Adams Farmers Market on Saturday morning. 

But once she got into the car, her mother, Jeannette Smith, told her those plans had changed. Instead, Savannah and her older sister Cassidy were going to meet Vice President Kamala Harris. 

The Smith sisters are members of ROPE, a Pittsfield-based leadership program for Black girls and young women; their mom, vice president of student life at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, is a program mentor.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D – Mass.) visited Pittsfield last week to tour and meet with staff at several nonprofits for which she helped secure federal funding. Part of her motivation, she said, was to “gather stories and information” about why congressionally directed spending should continue. The fundamental question, she said, is: “Do we think the federal government has a role to play in helping ensure there’s adequate funding so that our communities can thrive?”

At the new Volunteers in Medicine (VIM) facility, Executive Director and nurse practitioner Ilana Steinhauer explained that the $441,000 helped with their Pittsfield expansion and at the existing Great Barrington facility, allowing them to increase access and connect with patients who weren’t getting any services before, mainly the immigrant community—the only growing population in the Berkshires. They also serve and assist increasing numbers of people seeking asylum.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Berkshire Black Economic Council’s work to support and attract new small businesses to the gateway city got boost with $455,000 secured by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren in last year’s appropriations package.

The state’s senior senator was in the city on Thursday to talk small business opportunities and local health care, and met with four small-business owners who have received assistance, advice and promotion through the council’s programs before joining another roundtable at Soldier On.  

“I’m here to celebrate partnership because I really do believe that we have the pieces right, every part of it then starts to work better,” Warren said. “And of course, I’m also here to celebrate being able to put nearly half a million dollars into funding this effort, and the work that is being done here to make sure that small businesses, that Black-owned small businesses, are not at a competitive disadvantage.”

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — In Berkshire County, the housing crisis has a way of coming up in conversations, even if you’re chatting with U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

“Obviously, we have a housing crisis,” Warren said during a Thursday afternoon roundtable discussion with Soldier On. “If things work out on November 5, we are looking to put more money into housing starting January 2025. I’m interested in hearing from you what ways we can do that effectively?”

Warren was in town Thursday to hear from several local organizations how federal funding she helped secure last year has benefited Pittsfield. She began the afternoon at Volunteers in Medicine before holding roundtable discussions with the Berkshire Black Economic Council and Soldier On later in the day. Warren called the visit a story-gathering mission.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — “If you don’t listen to our voices, don’t talk s— when we resort to violence.”

Those words from 17-year-old Dance Hamilton ended up being the central thesis for “Violence Prevention/Voice Projection,” a “podcast-style film” that features testimonials and a roundtable discussion among four local teens about the social factors that cause violence among young people.

The film, funded by the Berkshire District Attorney’s Office via the Safe Neighborhood Grant, was screened for the first time Tuesday night at the Berkshire Athenaeum. Members of the DA’s office, Mayor Peter Marchetti and several community organizations attended.