
Rural Center Refillery in Pine Plains, N.Y., offers locally sourced products for the home.
Colleen Flynn
Rural Center Refillery in Pine Plains, N.Y., offers locally sourced products for the home.
Rural Center Refillery strives to cut the community’s plastic consumption while supporting local businesses.
“Our products cut back on waste, we return the containers to our suppliers, people bring in refillable containers for their own consumption, support local,” said Nicole Clanahan, co-founder of Rural Center Refillery, “Over half of our products are made/cultivated here in the Hudson Valley, and overall, they’re clean-no dyes, chemicals or synthetics.”
Nicole Clanahan and her husband, Corey Clanahan, who are the co-founders of Rural Center Refillery, founded the company in 2022. The doors to the store located in Pine Plains later opened in February 2023.
“Our mission was to introduce and provide opportunity to our community for sustainable swaps for everyday items,” said Clanahan, “Like coffee beans and dish soap.
The refillery focuses on three core values: community, sustainability, and having access to quality products that align with its mission. They offer small ways to reduce waste by offering candy, dish soap, toothpaste and other day to day items.
“We recently started a local farm CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). We work with over a dozen farms in the area to provide low-cost produce, dairy, baked goods and more. That’s probably my favorite product range right now.”
The company also offers a variety of gift baskets a customer can create, ranging from $25 to $50. The $25 gift basket includes two treat options, a paper bag to fill, and a jar. These options can range from shower steamers, lip balm, chocolate-covered espresso beans to dried pineapple.
“I also love our selection of locally roasted coffee beans, concentrated laundry detergents and body care products- we carry some amazing local tallow products by Maggie’s Delivery Service [Located in Millbrook] which is all the rage right now.”
Visit the store located at 2881 Church Street Pine Plains, or visit www.ruralcenterrefillery.com.
Jarred goods available at Rural Center Refillery.Colleen Flynn
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
On Saturday, April 5, at 3 p.m., The Triplex Cinema in Great Barrington and Jacob’s Pillow, the dance festival in Becket, Massachusetts, are presenting a special benefit screening of the cinematic masterpiece, “The Red Shoes,” followed by a discussion and Q&A. Featuring guest speakers Norton Owen, director of preservation at Jacob’s Pillow, and dance historian Lynn Garafola, the event is a fundraiser for The Triplex.
“We’re pitching in, as it were, because we like to help our neighbors,” said Norton. “They (The Triplex) approached us with the idea, wanting some input if they were going to do a dance film. I thought of Lynn as the perfect person also to include in this because of her knowledge of The Ballets Russes and the book that she wrote about Diaghilev. There is so much in this film, even though it’s fictional, that derives from the Ballets Russes.” Garafola, the leading expert on the Ballets Russes under Serge Diaghilev, 1909–1929, the most influential company in twentieth-century theatrical dance, said, “We see glimpses of that Russian émigré tradition, performances we don’t see much of today. The film captures the artifice of ballet, from the behind-the-scenes world of dressers and conductors to the sheer passion of the audience.”
Hailed as one of the greatest films about ballet, “The Red Shoes,” 1948, is a dazzling fusion of dance and cinema, featuring a mesmerizing 17-minute ballet sequence performed by Scottish ballet dancer and actress, Moira Shearer. Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, the film’s breathtaking use of Technicolor and evocative storytelling continues to captivate audiences, including legendary filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma, and Steven Spielberg all of whom have cited the film as an influence on their work.
Garafola recalled seeing the film as a young dancer. “I remember being more taken with the plot then, but seeing it again recently, it was the color, the fantasy, and the glamour that struck me. Given how gray England was after the war, the film’s vibrant costumes and settings create an almost dreamlike escape.”
Owen echoed Garafola’s sentiment. “It’s magical. Color was their thing, and this latest restoration makes it even more breathtaking.”
The film underwent an extensive digital restoration at the UCLA Film and Television archive between 2006 and 2008 and premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009. This is the version of the film which will be screened at the Triplex.
Owen said, “I love the depiction of young ballet audiences racing to their seats. That kind of enthusiasm is contagious. It’s what draws young dancers in.” Both Owen and Garafola epressed hope that young dancers will attend the event, sharing in the film’s enduring inspiration.
Owen and Garafola’s Q&A is sure to be lively and educational as they delve into the film’s legacy in both dance and cinema. “It’s not just a film for dance lovers. It’s a filmmaker’s film, too,” Owen added.
Join The Triplex and Jacob’s Pillow for this rare opportunity to experience “The Red Shoes” on the big screen, a film that continues to enchant, inspire, and ignite artistic passion.
Tickets are available for $75 at www.thetriplex.org.
Honeybees have developed interdependencies with early spring flowers.
Why are there no native super early flowering plants in our area?By “super early” I mean flowering some five weeks before forsythia. All the ones I know are alien.Most are “bulbiferous” and go dormant in summer. Snowdrops, Galanthus nivalis, and Snowbells, Leucojum vernum, are both in the amaryllis family; crocus species, in the iris family; and scilla, in the asparagus family belong to this category. Others, like cyclamen coum, primrose family; winter-aconite, eranthis hyemalis; and adonis amurensis, buttercup family; grow from tubers, thickened roots.None of them is a native plant. Although all mentioned families exist in the New World as well, none have produced super early flowering species similar to what exists in Eurasia, nor have other plant families.
We wait for our beautiful native spring wildflowers — Virginia bluebells, Dutchman’s breeches, Trilliums, Trout lily, etc.In our garden, the earliest native will be Bloodroot, by mid-April. By then, a large cohort of alien plants are already in full flower for several weeks, in some cases for over a month.
Why is this roughly four to five week temporal niche in the annual cycle unoccupied? It’s a niche of very low productivity for sure, but nature, famously, abhors any vacuum. Could it be that the physical habitat niche is too small here? What I found, doing some research, suggests it is possible — larger areas are correlated with more speciation according to p. 1149 in Science from March 15, 2025. Eurasia, broadly oriented from west to east, has a very long, uninterrupted temperate and mountainous zone, stretching from Spain to western China. With its many grassland habitats, it provides a huge playing field for evolution. America, by comparison, geographically laid out north to south, contains much less continuous temperate environments suited for crocus.
Until now. Our small, short-cropped lawn at winter’s end mimics aspects of Eurasian alpine meadows. There, before any green grass is visible, crocuses break through the edges of the melting snow cover on the late winter lawn. Species crocuses have conquered that new habitat, first in European gardens, and now here too. Before the grass grows too tall, they benefit from abundant sunshine to nourish their bulbs for next year. That’s another reason to delay mowing as long as possible. A lawn may not be a natural habitat, but if free of herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers, it is after all just another meadow.
Perhaps another reason for missing March flowers is a lack of early pollinators.On one of these rare sunny, warm days in early March, I wrote in my diary: “03/09/23 - many honeybees on winter aconite, also a fly …”and some honeybees on crocus as well. Like winter-aconite and crocus, honeybees are not native in America and I have never seen them again that early, ever since a nearby beekeeper gave up.Looking at the amounts of pollen in these crocus flowers, they must be an abundant food source for all kinds of bees and bumblebees. However, only honeybees — whose colonies survive the winter in hives — can quickly deploy a large number of pollen collectors. Flowers and insects co-evolved a myriad of interdependencies, so super early flowering plants, cold adapted, depend on enough pollinating insects to make flowering through the snow worthwhile. On high alpine meadows there may be other early up-and-about insect species, but here it is honeybees which profit most.
Snowdrops, snowbells, crocuses — they don’t compete with any natives, but fill a manmade, unoccupied niche.The very earliest to flower through the snow, adonis amurensis and cyclamen coum, grow in light shade and slowly form stay-in-place clumps. Unless in a controllable setting, I would stay away from squill — Scilla siberica — which is a very aggressive naturalizer and easily escapes.
As we wait for our many native beautiful spring flowers, how nice to have these aliens, such benign aliens for a change, to cheer up a March-brown lawn.
Fritz Mueller lives in Sharon.