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• Reading Henry James with Jim Kraft

  • Start
    Saturday, November 07, 2020
  •  
    (EST)
  • End
    Saturday, February 27, 2021
  •  
    (EST)
  • Schedule
    5 sessions
  • Location
    Online via Zoom

  
  

  Reading Henry James
  with James Kraft
  

  Saturdays, November 7, 2020- February 27, 2021
  3:00 pm - 4:30 pm  
  

  Online via Zoom: registration required

  Longtime OLLI instructor James Kraft will lead a new monthly course entitled "Reading Henry James," starting on Saturday, November 7^th at 3pm, and continuing monthly on Saturdays at 3pm through February 27.
  

  
  

  Registration is $50 for OLLI at BCC members, and $65 for non-members.  Click here to register. 
  

  Considered one of the greatest writers in English, Henry James is known for his psychological insight into his characters, and for his provocative prose.  The prose is considered to have three phases: early narratives that are accessible portraits of his time; more challenging narratives and prose called the middle periods; the late and complex style that embodies his most challenging perceptions.  The discussion will examine the three phases in the reading of James's major novels and tales.

  Reading Schedule:

  • Saturday 11/7/20: The Europeans (1878) & Daisy Miller (1878)

  • Note-- there are excellent film adaptations of both:  "The Europeans" (1979) directed by Merchant and Ivory and starring Lee Remick; "Daisy Miller" (1974) directed by Peter Bogdanovich and starring Cybill Shepherd

  • Saturday 12/5/20: The Portrait of a Lady (1880)

  This was adapted into a 1998 film directed by Jane Campion and starring Nicole Kidman, John Malkovich, Mary-Louise Park, Christian Bale, John Gielgud and many others

  • Saturday 1/9/21: The Bostonians (1885)

  • A 1984 film adaptation was directed by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. The film stars Vanessa Redgrave, Christopher Reeve, Madeleine Potter, and Jessica Tandy.

  • Saturday 2/6/21: “The Author of Beltraffio” (1884), “The Aspern Papers” (1888), “The Lesson of the Master” (1888) and “The Altar of the Dead” (1895) (The first three can be found in this collection of his short stories.)
    

  • Saturday 2/27/21: What Maisie Knew (1897) and The Spoils of Poynton (1896)

  Please read again any work that you have already read.  A second reading of James is a different and exciting experience.  NOTE: Henry James is not a quick read; we recommend starting the readings well in advance of the discussion session.

  Reading Henry James is led by longtime OLLI literature instructor James Kraft, who attended Princeton, King’s College, Cambridge University, and Fordham.  He has a doctorate in literature and has taught at the University of Virginia, Université Laval in Quebec City, and Wesleyan in Connecticut.  He was assistant director of the Whitney Museum for eight years, and now teaches at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Berkshire Community College and at the New York Society Library in New York City.

  In addition to the above films that supplement the readings, there are several other film adaptations of Henry James--

  • "The Innocents" (1961) based on "The Turn of the Screw"-- directed by Jack Clayton and starring Deborah Kerr, Michael Redgrave and Megs Jenkins
  • "The Heiress" (1949) based on "Washington Square"-- directed by William Wyler and starring Olivia de Havilland, Montgomery Clift and Ralph Richardson
  • "What Maisey Knew" (2012)-- directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel, and starring Julianne Moore, Alexander Skardsgard, Onata Aprile and more
  • "The Wings of the Dove" (1997)-- directed by Iain Softley and starring Helena Bonham Carter, Linus Roache and Alison Elliot
  • "The Golden Bowl" (2000)-- directed by James Ivory and starring Kate Beckinsale, Nick Nolte, Anjelica Huston, Uma Thurman and more

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• OLLI Winter 2021 Online Semester

  • Start
    Tuesday, January 19, 2021
  •  
    9:30 AM (EST)
  • End
    Wednesday, March 03, 2021
  •  
    5:00 PM (EST)
  • Location
    Online

  Register

  
  

  OLLI's Winter Semester of Online Courses
  

  January 19 to March 5, 2021
  Classes run six weeks (except where noted)
  

  Enjoy OLLI at BCC's live, interactive, online courses from the comfort of your own home using the free, easy-to-use  Zoom program (we'll show you how!) No tests, no grades, no prerequisites (except OLLI membership), just learning for the love of learning. 

  Register securely online here or call 413.236.2190 (Mon-Fri, 9am-4pm) to register by phone with a credit card, or with any questions you may have. To sign up for OLLI courses, you must be an OLLI annual member. (Not a member yet? Join here! )
  

  OLLI Winter Semester-at-a-Glance
  Click on the course names to read more about them.

  MONDAYS BEGINNING JANUARY 25
  

  • M101 | First Nations Art, Culture and Myths
  • M102 | Latin Poetry
  • M103 | Russia Pro and Con (limited registration)  CLOSED-AT CAPACITY

  TUESDAYS BEGINNING JANUARY 19

  • T101 | Today's Headlines
  • T102 | Not Afraid of Virginia Woolf (limited registration) CLOSED-AT CAPACITY
    
  • T103 | Around The World in Ninety Minutes
  • T104 | Tuesdays at the Movies: American Auteurs
  • 
    
    WEDNESDAYS BEGINNING JANUARY 20/27

  • W101 | RBG: The Woman, The Litigator, The Justice
  • W102 | The Arthurian Romances of Chrétien de Troyes: Armor vs. ‘Amour’ in 12th-Century France (limited registration) CLOSED-AT CAPACITY
    
  • W103 | Leslie
  • W104 | Jacob's Pillow in 3D

  THURSDAYS BEGINNING JANUARY 21
  

  • R101 | Shakespeare’s Richard II
  • R102 | Global Health: Systems, People, Prescriptions, and Outcomes
  • R103 | Photography- Creative Technique and Expertise (limited registration)  CLOSED-AT CAPACITY

  FRIDAYS BEGINNING JANUARY 22

  • F101 | Science Conversations
  • F102 | Advances in Medicine
  • F103 | Children and Covid-19:  Impacts, Interventions, and Supports

  Not sure which classes you want to take? Sign up for one or more Flexpasses, which allow you to attend six individual class sessions of your choice within a semester, as long as the class in not full. Click here to learn more about Flexpasses.

  Course fees are $50 for one course, $95 for two or three, and $125 for four or more courses within a semester. Each Flexpass counts as one course. Click here to register online. Needs-based partial scholarships are also available. For more information on scholarships, call Executive Director Megan Whilden at 413.236.2192.

  Schedule conflicts? No worries! All but one of our winter classes (M103: Russia is the exception) are recorded. If the live schedule does not work for you or if you miss a session or two you can request a link to the recording and watch it at your convenience.
  

  Questions? Contact us at olli@berkshirecc.edu or 413.236.2190. We look forward to seeing you online!
  

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• 11th Annual OLLI Art Show Reception

  • When
    Saturday, January 30, 2021
  •  
    2:00 PM (EST)
  • Location
    Online

  Register

  
  

  OLLI's 11th annual Art Show is online this year! We're kicking it off with a festive online opening reception on

  Saturday, January 30th, at 2pm EST
  Online via Zoom | to RSVP click here
  

  Free and open to all!
  

  Enjoy artwork created by 46 OLLI at BCC members in a variety of media including photography, painting, drawing, sculpture, mixed media, fabric art and more.

  This year's artists include:

  Alan Metzger

  Alan Rubin

  Amelia Berg

  Art Alpert

  Austin Porter

  Carol Fryd

  Charles Hochbaum

  Claudia Shuster

  David Hagerty

  Elna Nugent

  Erika Crofut

  Helga S. Orthofer

  Howard Shapiro

  Jane McWhorter

  Jane Salata

  Joan Flesch

  Joan Gluck

  Joan L. Davidson

  Judith Fox-Goldstein

  Judy Seaman

  Karen Erickson

  Larry Frankel

  Lee Easter

  Leslie Feldman

  Linda Hertz

  Lucia Sullivan

  Marsha Markle

  Mary Anne Carley

  Maxine Bookless

  Michael Lebowitz

  Mike Laurin

  Mike Zdeb

  Nan Bookless

  Nancy Turner Fagelman

  Neil Koreman

  Polly Kurasch

  Richard Lasner

  Ron Garfunkel

  Stephen Sariego

  Steve Rubin

  Sue Arkans

  Susan Geller

  Terry Sherman

  Valerie Bassett

  Valerie Takvorian

  Varoujan Froundjian

  
  

  Generously co-sponsored by:

  
  

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• Healthcare Does Not Equal Health: Drivers of Health Inequities for Older Adults

  • When
    Thursday, February 04, 2021
  •  
    3:30 PM - 5:00 PM (EST)

  Register

  
  

  Healthcare Does Not Equal Health: Drivers of Health Inequities for Older Adults

  Presented by Dr. Lena Makaroun MD, MS 
  Center for Health Equity Research & Promotion, VA Pittsburgh Healthcare;
  Division of Geriatric Medicine, University of Pittsburgh Medical School

  Thursday, February 4th, 2021 at 3:30pm
  Live and online via Zoom
  Free & open to all; RSVPs required to receive link
  

  

  Issues that produce inequities in the health of older Americans damage individuals as well as communities. 

  Dr. Makaroun, a geriatrician trained at Cornell and University of California San Francisco, will elucidate these issues and respond to your questions on this timely and important topic.

  As a geriatrics health services researcher at the VA Pittsburgh Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion and a Pepper Scholar at the University of Pittsburgh Claude D. Pepper Older American Independence Center, Dr. Makaroun studies social influences ("determinants") of health for older adults. She enjoys teaching students, residents and fellows about the unique considerations and holistic approach needed when caring for complex older adults, particularly attending to the social factors that heavily impact health and well-being for us all as we age.

  The event is free and open to all, but RSVPs are required.  Click here to RSVP.
  

  This event is organized by OLLI at BCC's Changing the Culture of Aging Shared Interest Group, and is co-sponsored by Berkshire SuperGenarians and Age Friendly Berkshires.

   

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• Mistrust: Harnessing Technology for the Public Good

  • When
    Tuesday, February 09, 2021
  •  
    7:00 PM (EST)

  Register

  
  

  
  

  Mistrust: A Conversation on Harnessing Technology for the Public Good

  With Ethan Zuckerman, author of the new book Mistrust: Why Losing Faith in Institutions Provides the Tools to Transform Them, and Nicholas Carr, author of the newly reissued The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains
  

  Tuesday, February 9th at 7pm via Zoom
  Free & open to all; RSVPs required
  Co-sponsored by 1Berkshire and the Berkshire Innovation Center

  The rise of mistrust is provoking a crisis for representative democracy—solutions lie in the endless creativity of social movements.

  Join us online February 9th for an interactive live discussion with Ethan Zuckerman, founder of the Institute for Digital Public Infrastructure at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Nicholas Carr, author, blogger and former executive editor of the Harvard Business Review. Together they will discuss the core ideas in Zuckerman’s newest book, Mistrust: Why Losing Faith in Institutions Provides the Tools to Transform Them.

  Zuckerman, who directed the Center for Civic Media at MIT from 2011-2020 has long been considered one of the leading thinkers at the intersection of technology, politics and society. In his new book, Mistrust, Zuckerman moves beyond the anger and mistrust of institutions to a set of levers – laws, markets, codes and norms – that provide tools for citizens to promote positive change in the world.

  Nicholas Carr, author of five groundbreaking books that deeply question how technology is changing our brains and reshaping our social fabric, will join Zuckerman to discuss the major propositions presented in Mistrust.

  Ethan Zuckerman has a long history of creating platforms and organizations that use technology to raise new voices. Zuckerman’s Media Cloud platform enabled scholars at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center to analyze and critique the mainline coverage of the 2016 election. Global Voices, which he co-founded with Rebecca MacKinnon in 2005, promotes free speech online across the globe. In 1999, after living in Ghana as a Fulbright scholar, Zuckerman co-founded Geekcorps, a tech Peace Corps, to assist in the transfer of technology and business skills to entrepreneurs in the developing world.

  Presented by OLLI at BCC's Tech Impact Forum.

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• Are Conspiracy Theories Out to Get Us?

  • When
    Thursday, February 25, 2021
  •  
    7:00 PM - 8:30 PM (EST)
  • Location
    Online via Zoom

  Register

  

   
  

  The OLLI Distinguished Speakers Series presents
  Berkshire Community College Professor Chris Laney on

  Are Conspiracy Theories Out to Get Us?
  

  Thursday, February 25, 2021
  

  7:00 pm
  Online via Zoom 
  Click here to register safely and securely online
  or call 413.236.2190.

  Conspiracism has been with us since the Puritans believed the Devil was conspiring with witches in Salem.  Though conspiracy theories have at times been seen as harmless or even fun, recent events show how dangerous they can be.  We’ll look briefly at the way conspiracy theories have developed in American history, and at some frameworks for recognizing conspiracism and pushing back against its most pernicious variants.

  
  

  Chris Laney teaches history at Berkshire Community College.  Alarmed by the growing trend of conspiracism in the United States, in 2009 he began teaching a course called Conspiracy Theories in American History, with an eye toward helping students develop tools to sort out real conspiracies from unsubstantiated conspiracy theories.  He lives in the Hilltowns with his family and assorted goats and chickens.

   
  

  Admission is $10 for OLLI at BCC and Berkshire Museum members, and $15 for the general public.  Admission is free for Berkshire Community College students, youth 17 and under, and those holding WIC, EBT/SNAP, or ConnectorCare cards.
  

  Pre-registration is required. Click here to register safely and securely online or call 413.236.2190.

  In Partnership with the Berkshire Museum

  

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• The Sarasota Ballet

  • Start
    Friday, February 26, 2021
  •  
    (EST)
  • End
    Tuesday, March 02, 2021
  •  
    11:30 PM (EST)
  • Location
    Online

  Register

  
  

  The OLLI at BCC Special Events Committee presents

  The Sarasota Ballet Online
  George Balanchine's Donizetti Variations
  & Ricardo Graziano's Amorosa

  $30 OLLI at BCC Members/$35 Non-Members

  Tickets include access to the performance online exclusively from February 26 through March 2nd, 2021 and an exclusive live online talkback on Wednesday, March 3rd at 3:30 pm EST

  To register for the performance and the Zoom talk, please click here, or call 413.236.2190 Monday-Friday, 9am-4pm to order by phone.
  

  REGISTRATION DEADLINE IS FEBRUARY 22nd

  The Sarasota Ballet’s expansive repertoire, coupled with the athleticism and artistry of the Company’s dancers, has brought the Company national and international acclaim. With rave reviews in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Dance Europe, Dancing Times and numerous other publications, The Sarasota Ballet has been invited to perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, at City Center and the Joyce Theater in New York City, and the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in the Berkshires, Massachusetts.

  George Balanchine's Donizetti Variations

  Balanchine created Donizetti Variations, named after composer Gaetano Donizetti whose music for the opera Don Sebastian is featured in the ballet, to mark the 100th anniversary of Italy's unification. New York City Ballet premiered this "cheerful and sunny work" alongside La Sonnambula and Monumentum Pro Gesualdo in November 1960 as part of "Salute to Italy," celebrating the Italian centennial event.

  Ricardo Graziano's Amorosa
  A January 2019 ballet by The Sarasota Ballet's Resident Choreographer Ricardo Graziano, Amorosa sets five couples clad in crimson and black to extracts from Antonio Vivaldi's Cello Concertos. This performance marks the first occasion for which Amorosa has been performed since its World Premiere.

  To register for the performance and the Zoom talk, please click here, or call 413.236.2190 Monday-Friday, 9am-4pm to order by phone.

  
  

  Please note: the recording will no longer be available after 11:59 PM EST on March 2nd.
  

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• Tasting Teas in Real Time with Master Tea Blender Michael Harney

  • When
    Monday, March 15, 2021
  •  
    3:00 PM - 4:30 PM (EDT)
  • Location
    Online

  Register

  
  

  The OLLI at BCC Special Events Committee presents

  Tasting Teas in Real Time with Master Tea Blender Michael Harney

  Online via Zoom on Monday, March 15 at 3pm Eastern
  

  Tickets are $12 for OLLI at BCC Members and $18 for Non-Members & include a tea sampler mailed to you!
  

  Master Tea Blender for 30 years and buyer Michael Harney of Harney & Sons will share his love of tea with you over Zoom.

  To register for the tasting, please click here or call 413.236.2190 Mon-Fri, 9am-4pm to register by phone. Early registration encouraged!

  After registering, Harney & Sons will mail you four tea samples:

  • White Vanilla Grapefruit
  • Japanese Sencha
  • Pomegranate Oolong
  • Hot Cinnamon Spice

  All you'll need to provide is hot water and cups for the live Zoom tasting on Monday, March 15th, when Michael Harney will guide you through an expert tasting of each of the four teas.

  REGISTRATION DEADLINE IS MARCH 3rd

  To register for the tasting, please click here.

  
  

  
  

  
  

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