All are welcome at The Mahaiwe

Paquito D’Rivera performs at the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington on April 5.
Geandy Pavon
Paquito D’Rivera performs at the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington on April 5.
Natalia Bernal is the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center’s education and community engagement manager and is, in her own words, “the one who makes sure that Mahaiwe events are accessible to all.”
The Mahaiwe’s community engagement program is rooted in the belief that the performing arts should be for everyone. “We are committed to establishing and growing partnerships with neighboring community and arts organizations to develop pathways for overcoming social and practical barriers,” Bernal explained. “Immigrants, people of color, communities with low income, those who have traditionally been underserved in the performing arts, should feel welcomed at the Mahaiwe.”
Partnerships with organizations like Volunteers in Medicine Berkshires (VIM), the W.E.B. Du Bois Legacy Committee, and Community Access to the Arts (CATA) have helped bridge that gap. But for the Latinx community, there’s an even more targeted effort: the Spanish-language Community Advisory Network (SCAN).
“Six years ago, we started an advisory group of Spanish speakers in the community,” Bernal said. “They tell us what the community wants to see, how they’d like their culture represented. Today, SCAN has 12 members. We meet four times a year and are in constant communication. It’s because of them that we’ve hosted free Spanish-language film screenings and live performances.”
For Bernal, this work is personal. “When I first moved to the U.S. in 2003, it was because I got a Latin American scholarship to study at Berklee College of Music. That first year, I went home to Uruguay for Christmas and saw Paquito D’Rivera perform at a jazz festival. I was determined to meet him, and I did. Later that year, Paquito came to Berklee and invited me on stage.”
Now, two decades and 16 Grammys later, Paquito D’Rivera is coming to the Mahaiwe on April 5, and there’s a chance history might repeat itself. “He saw a post we made about his concert and commented, ‘Ay, chica, que maravilla, are you gonna sing a song with us?’ I almost died,” Bernal laughed. “I don’t know if it will happen, but it would be a dream.”
About the possibility of a guest appearance by Bernal, D’Rivera said, “Natalia is a very dear, valuable colleague, and jazz is about improvisation, so the surprise factor is always part of the fun here.”
D’Rivera’s concert is just one example of how the Mahaiwe is making world-class performances accessible. “My whole day has been about offering ‘pay what you can’ tickets for this show,” Bernal says. “We also issued a 50% discount to our partners. We work with ESL teachers, public libraries, literacy agencies, anyone who can help us get the word out.”
That kind of grassroots effort has been transformative. “Last year, we screened ‘Florencia en el Amazonas,’ the first opera written in Spanish ever performed at the Met,” Bernal said. “I sat in the Mahaiwe in tears. As someone who loves opera, it was the first time I heard one written in my own language. It was so powerful.”
Natalia Bernal, Mahaiwe’s education and community engagement managerPhoto by Martin Cohen
For Bernal, it all comes back to representation, on stage and in the audience. “My son is eight. I bring him to everything I can. Spanish shouldn’t just be something that happens at the dinner table. It should be in the world, in all these shapes and forms.”
And that’s what SCAN is helping build: a future where Latinx voices aren’t just included, they are central. “Our SCAN advisors are volunteers, cultural ambassadors,” Bernal said. “They help us distribute surveys, talk to the audience, and strengthen the community. Nobody should feel alone. Everybody should feel like they belong here.”
Education and outreach are central to D’Rivera’s work as well. He said, “It is an important part of our mission to plant and nurture the seed of quality music in our communities.” He continued to say, “Using our visibility and influence in favor of justice is always a very effective vehicle in denouncing violations of human rights around the world.”
This shared mission of education and social justice extends beyond the Mahaiwe. “We are one of the few arts organizations in a monthly meeting with BASIC (Berkshire Alliance for Immigrant Services). We have direct ties to the Berkshire Immigrant Center, VIM, and others so that we are well-informed and ready to serve,” said Bernal.
That commitment to community, culture, and access is why Bernal’s dream panel—Women in the Music Business—would feature Paquito’s wife and longtime manager, Brenda Feliciano. “She’s a tower of power. She’s been managing his career for at least 45 years. If I could organize an event one day, she would be the cherry on the cake.”
Until then, Bernal will keep doing what she does best: making sure the Mahaiwe is a place where everyone, regardless of language, income, or background, feels at home. And maybe, just maybe, she’ll find herself back on stage with Paquito D’Rivera, just like that first time, all those years ago.
For more info and tickets to Paquito D’Rivera, visit mahaiwe.org
Waterlily (8”x12”) made by Marilyn Hock
It takes a lot of courage to share your art for the first time and Marilyn Hock is taking that leap with her debut exhibition at Sharon Town Hall on Sept. 12. A realist painter with a deep love for wildlife, florals, and landscapes, Hock has spent the past few years immersed in watercolor, teaching herself, failing forward, and returning again and again to the page. This 18-piece collection is a testament to courage, practice and a genuine love for the craft.
“I always start with the eyes,” said Hock of her animal portraits. “That’s where the soul lives.” This attentiveness runs through her work, each piece rendered with care, clarity, and a respect for the subtle variations of color and light in the natural world.
After painting in oils earlier in life, Hock returned to art when she retired from working as a paralegal with a goal: to learn watercolor. It wasn’t easy.
“Oils and watercolor are opposites,” she explained. “With oils, you build your darks first. In watercolor, if you do that, you’re in trouble.” She studied online, finding instructors whose approach clicked, and adapted to the delicacy of the medium.
“When I’m working, everything else falls away,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what’s going on in life. While I’m painting, time disappears.”
Her studio, formerly a home office, is now her sanctuary and the pieces in this exhibition are the result of three years of that devoted studio work. While this is her first full public show, Hock previously tested the waters at a small fundraiser at Noble Horizons, where one of her pieces sold. That experience — and the consistent encouragement from her family, especially her husband — pushed her to pursue a full exhibition. With gentle encouragement from her husband and family, Hock reached out to the Town Hall’s curator, Zelina Blagden. “My husband kept saying, ‘You’re as good as all those other people out there, why not show your work?’” And so, here it is.
All paintings in the show are for sale, though Hock admits a few are priced high — not because of their size or complexity — but because she’s not quite ready to let them go. “There are a couple I’ve priced high because I’m not sure I want to part with them. But we’ll see,” she laughed. “It would be nice to support the habit a little bit.”
As for aspiring artists or anyone hesitating to begin something creative, Hock’s advice is simple: “Go for it. If it fails, toss it in the basket and start over.”
The exhibit will be on view at Sharon Town Hall through Oct. 31 with an opening reception on Sept. 12 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Light refreshments will be served.
Carissa Unite, general manager of Oblong Books in Millerton.
Carissa Unite of Millerton, began working at Oblong Books 16 years ago as a high schooler. She recently celebrated her eight-year anniversary as the general manager.
Unite’s journey at Oblong began even before she applied for her first position.An avid reader from a young age, she was a frequent customer at the store. During those years, Unite bonded with a former employee who encouraged her to apply for a position after connecting over their shared love of reading.
As a teenager, Unite enjoyed reading Ellen Hopkins, John Green and Ann Brashares. With the busyness of adulthood, she now favors the convenience of audio books. In the past year, however, she has made it a point to read more physical books.
With a preference for contemporary fiction, she raved about “Atmosphere” by Taylor Jenkins Reid. The story, set in the 1980s, follows two women who become astronauts at a time when women were not widely accepted in the field. A beautiful love story emerges between the two characters. Unite described the writing as sensational and commended Reid’s ability to tackle complex themes without them being muddied.
Unite has developed a deep appreciated for classic literature. Her two favorites are “Giovanni’s Room” by James Baldwin and “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde. She was amazed by the philosophical nature of both words and the way their dialogue challenged her perspective.
In an effort to read beyond her preferred genre, she recommends the following:
“Some Desperate Glory,” by Emily Tesh, “Midnight Rooms,” by Donyae Coles and “Clear” by Carys Davies.
For Unite, the beauty of reading lies in its power to develop perspective, empathy, and compassion. Through books, readers learn that everyone is fighting different battles and no two stories are the same. She encourages people to choose kindness because you never know what someone else is facing.
Above all, reading brings Unite peace. If offers transcendence to another world, a pause from outside noise, and for Unite, it is where she feels most at home.
For anyone hesitant to being reading, Unite suggests: just do it! Read 10 pages a day and find the book that speaks to you. Any Oblong staff member would be happy to offer recommendations.
Oblong is located at 26 Main St., in Millerton and 6422 Montgomery St. in Rhinebeck.
Michele Paladino’s nursery, “Lindera” in Falls Village.
It was a bit unfair, in my last column, to write a critique of a well-regarded plant reference book (“When the guide gets it wrong”) without recommending a satisfactory replacement or two.
As a novice gardener, I found plant selection — native or not — to be overwhelming and relied on website databases that let me enter soil, moisture, light and critter criteria, then return options I could research. Unsurprisingly, this yielded little garden satisfaction in situ. It may well be that it takes a little poetry to create a garden.
That’s where books come in.A well-written reference book can provide the kind of commentary that goes beyond a plant’s likelihood of survival in one’s garden.
Page Dickey’s (a well-known garden writer and landscape designer who lives in Falls Village) go-to on native plants is the three-volume set by Michael Cullina who led The Wildflower Society (now called The Native Plant Trust). Each book delves into different categories of plants: one on native trees, shrubs and vines (“one of my bibles” is the inscription on the opening page), another on native ferns, mosses and grasses and a third on wildflowers.
Dickey’s copies evidence of heavy use; in addition to hand-written commentary, there are check marks for the plants that she has either grown or identified. After a perusal, I looked more closely to get Cullina’s take on some of my favorite plants. While disappointed to find only one of the three types of aralias I admire — Aralia spinoza, the Devil’s Walking Stick — I was amazed to read about some fantastic species I didn’t know.
With their ease of use and combination of fact and considered opinion, the books function a bit like Dirr’s “Hardy Trees and Shrubs,” the subject of my last column. Unlike Dirr’s book — which ignores the role of native plants in maintaining habitats and glosses over the invasive tendencies of many plants that Dirr extolls — Cullina’s books help the reader understand the importance of specific plants and the roles they play in keeping our environments healthy for all animals, including us.
Doug Tallamy, the renowned entomologist and co-founder of Homegrown National Park, once provided data that was incorporated into the Native Plant Finder database for the National Wildlife Foundation. He stands by the practicality of digital databases for supplying information that can be updated as the environment continues to change.
Dee Salomon
Still, Tallamy is partial to a number of reference books and cited two he has relied on for years: “Native Plants of the Northeast” by Donald J. Leopold, and “Native Trees for North American Landscapes” by Guy Sternberg.
“They were among the early books I encountered when I started thinking about native plants,” said Tallamy. “They are rich in good photos, and they describe the conditions under which various species do well. I like Guy’s books in part because he does his best to talk about how they meet the needs of various animal species. No other book talks much about the insects that plants support because when they were written, we knew little about host plant associations.”
Much of what I’ve planted successfully in the past two years came at the recommendation of Michele Paladino, a plantswoman, landscape designer and proprietor of Lindera, a nursery specializing in native plants. She recently relocated the nursery to the former Falls Village Flower Farm.
Like Dickey and Tallamy, Paladino also turns to a few essential sources. “When I’m working on a project, I really want to ponder trees and their character. I always go back to books for inspiration.”
She, too, recommends Sternberg’s book as a go-to reference on trees, and highlights the two books by Carol Gracie on both Spring and Summer wildflowers. These two books delve more deeply into fewer plants — most, but not all, native — pointing out the insects and birds that they attract and including hand-drawn illustrations.
I was surprised to see two pages dedicated to broadleaf helleborine, a non-native orchid I’ve had my eye on in the woods for a while. Gracie argues both for and against this plant; her verdict is: pull them out.
Although she would not want to be characterized this way, Paladino is the best kind of human reference guide to native plants, sharing both essential plant information and her editorial perspective.
With Fall planting season at our doorstep, I recommend a visit to her nursery, located where the Falls Village Flower Farm used to be. Come with questions, as Paladino likes to consult and collaborate with clients.
There is always lasting affection for books that sparked our curiosity for a lifelong passion. The books Dickey, Tallamy and Palladino recommend were last published a couple of decades ago. They recognize that they are trading some up-to-date accuracy of information for prose that inspires and provokes — sentiment is preferred.
Might publishers reissue these books in digital form? That would allow for contemporary updates on plant diseases, soil chemistry changes and invasive species associated with climate change — as well as the resulting species decline we, and entire ecosystems, are rapidly experiencing.
Done well, it could thread the needle between accuracy and allure.
Dee Salomon ‘ungardens’ in Litchfield County.