The South Williamstown Community Association

Promoting community, historical preservation and neighborhood building for Williamstown and surrounding locales.

SWCA ANNUAL MEETING TOMORROW AT 5:30PM AT WAUBEEKA … AND MORE

by | Jun 12, 2022 | News

SWCA members are invited to our Annual Meeting to be held outside under a canopy behind Waubeeka Golf Links on New Ashford Road from 5:30-7PM on Monday, June 13.

That is the day before Town Meeting and we have invited Stephanie Boyd of the Planning Board to be on hand to cast some light on warrant articles to be voted on affecting zoning in our neighborhood.

Please arrive promptly for about 10 minutes of official business, including voting on new nominees to serve on our board.  Waubeeka is catering simple refreshments.  There will be a cash bar and lots of good cheer.

Please come.

Bette Craig, President

SWCA BOARD:  Matt Baya, Pam Burger,Alison Case, Katie Case, Karen Charbonneau, Van Ellet, Mindy Hackner, Anne Hogeland,Mary Ellen Meehan, Melanie Mowinski, Mark Thaisz, Michelle Thaisz, Carolyn Umlauf


AND DON'T FORGET TOWN MEETING TUESDAY, JUNE 14, AT 7PM AT MOUNT GREYLOCK REGIONAL SCHOOL


BUSY WEEKEND AHEAD WITH “COUNTERCULTURE” ART EXHIBIT OPENING AT FIELD FARM ON SATURDAY, JUNE 18, AS WELL AS WILLIAMSTOWN HISTORICAL MUSEUM'S ANNUAL MEETING WITH ILLUSTRATED LECTURE ON LOCAL GRAVESTONES, AS WELL AS NATIVE PLANT SALE IN CUMMINGTON


JUNE 18, 2022 – NOVEMBER 30, 2022

Rose B. Simpson: “Counterculture”

The Guest House at Field Farm

Williamstown

On View

June 18, 2022 – November 30, 2022

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Location

The Guest House at Field Farm
554 Sloan Road
Williamstown, MA 01267

 Get Directions

Cost

Free

Admissions Information


The exhibition will be installed along the horizon line of a Field Farm meadows that is visible from Sloan Road. The sculptural artwork consists of twelve cast-concrete figures supported by steel-gauge wireframes that stand approximately nine feet tall. The figures are covered with a dry concrete spray, adorned with ceramic and found objects, and include steel-posts rooted into the ground with cement.

Simpson’s most ambitious work to date, Counterculture honors generations of marginalized people and cultures whose voices have been too often silenced by colonization. The figures look West across a post-apocalyptic vista, the vast homelands from which native peoples were forcibly removed. The artist imagines the figures as watchful presences, reminders that history and the natural world perpetually observe humanity. With hollow eyes that catch the morning sunlight, the feminine-bodied forms also suggest that Mother Earth shows us the way—that respect for the land and its original inhabitants are the honorable way forward.

Join Rose and Monique Tyndall in conversation on June 19.

June 18, 11 am, Annual Meeting & Lecture
Now at the Milne Library

(Note New Venue)
Gravestone of Isaac Stratton in Southlawn Cemetery. Photo: John G. S. Hanson 

Slide Lecture: “Reading the Gravestones of Old New England”

with John G. S. Hanson

At 11 am on Saturday, June 18, John – the son of the late Harlan “Harpo” and Dorothea Hanson and a 1976 graduate of Mount Greylock Regional High School – will deliver a slide lecture on his book Reading the Gravestones of Old New England.

“For me, these graveyards hold an absorbing store of poetic messages from early New Englanders. I started collecting interesting epitaphs in the Williamstown burial grounds when I was a kid, and through the years I keep asking myself ‘where did these verses come from, and how did they get on these gravestones?’” John explained.

“Trying to satisfy my curiosity on those two questions has led me on a personal journey of heart and mind into the literary and spiritual world these people inhabited. Each time I stand in front of a gravestone and read, I hear the sadness, grief, hope, joy, and faith of these ordinary people who lived and died two centuries ago and more.”
John’s slides include examples from Westlawn and Southlawn cemeteries in Williamstown. “Westlawn has some great stones and carving, but is oddly short on epitaph verse,” he said. “Whereas Southlawn is fabulous, with a remarkable range of scripture, hymns, original writings, and poetry.”
“This lecture will give historically-minded members of the community a new window, albeit through an odd aperture, into the reading, writing, and devotional lives of the early settlers, some of whom may be their ancestors.”

John's lecture will follow our brief annual meeting at 11 am on Saturday, June 18, in the Community Room of the Milne Library. Admission is free and all are welcome! If you own a copy of John's book, bring it along to the lecture and get it signed.

The Milne Public Library is located at 1095 Main Street, on the south side of Field Park at the northern junction of Routes 2 & 7 in Williamstown. Parking is available and the building is handicap accessible. The program will be recorded and will be broadcast by WilliNet at a later date.



Visit a Native Plant Nursery!

Saturday, June 18, 10am–3pm

Hosted by Bee Friendly Williamstown

at Wing and a Prayer Nursery, 48 Trouble St, Cummington, MA. 

Join founders of Bee Friendly Williamstown for a day out at Amy Pulley's inspiring native plant nursery. Amy and helpers will be on hand to answer questions about native plants; more than 200 species available. Amy will lead tours of the nursery at 11am and 1:30pm. Bring a picnic and stay for a while! Kids are welcome. Friends of Bee Friendly Williamstown get 10% off all plants, Saturday only! CASH or CHECK—no credit cards accepted. Contact beefriendlywilliamstown@gmail.com or Amy's Facebook page for directions. GPS can be wrong!