• Worksong Workshop with Max Godfrey
  Wednesday, January 9th, 7:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m., in Goodrich Hall

  

  Max Godfrey leading songs in the field.

  Join Max Godfrey and Friends for a raucous, foot-stomping evening of worksongs, food, and infectious laughter. We will learn many songs traditionally sung by prisoners and field workers as a means of enduring the hardships of forced labor, but which have been rediscovered by farmers as tools for making their work more enjoyable. With simple, call-and-response structures, these songs can be learned quickly and require no vocal “skill” whatsoever. We will start with the simplest songs and share some more involved worksongs as our lungs warm up. We will also share many songs from around the world that American farmers have adapted for use in the fields. Even if you’re not a farmer you’re bound to remember some of these songs and enjoy sharing them with friends. This singalong will include a meal prepared by Max and Friends, but singing will continue throughout the evening.

  Over the past two years, Max Godfrey has been steadily digging through old field recordings of southern worksongs and teaching them to people in fields and kitchens, on front porches and streetcorners across the Northeast and in his home state of Georgia. He draws upon the songs that African Americans sang for decades on chain gangs and in farm fields throughout the 20th century South. As an apprentice on small farms he has been exploring the ways in which traditional songs can be used as tools for strengthening the fabric of local communities. The singing of worksongs in the fields again represents an important step towards the restoration of culture in american agriculture; Max is on tour to share these songs with as many people as he can this winter. He has led worksongs the Clearwater Festival, the Farmer’s March on Wall Street, the Georgia Organics Conference, Sylvester Manor’s Plant and Sing festival, and Frolona Fest, and has helped teach worksong workshops at Young Farmer’s Conference and NOFA NY.

  See Max in action here: http://vimeo.com/54693244

• Food Justice and Food Access Discussion Tables
  Monday, January 14th, 5:30 p.m.–6:30 p.m.
  Dennett Dining Room, Mission Park Dining Hall
  
  with:
  

  Annelle M. Curulla
  Assistant Professor of French Literature and Language
  Food Policy & Muslim Communities in France

  Valerie Schwarz
  Berkshire Food Project
  Food security and emergency food in northern Berkshire County

  Andrea Lindsay ‘13
  Building urban communities through food

  This evening is part of Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration programming and is arranged by the Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives, in cooperation with The Davis Center.

  Questions? Contact Brent Wasser at brent.wasser@williams.edu, or (413) 597-4422.

• Philip Ackerman-Leist
  Rebuilding the Foodshed: How to Create Local, Sustainable, and Secure Food Systems
  Wednesday, February 13th, 6:30 p.m.-8:00 p.m.
  Griffin Hall, Room 3

  

  Philip-Ackerman-Leist

  Droves of people have turned to local food as a way to retreat from our broken industrial food system. From rural outposts to city streets, they are sowing, growing, selling, and eating food produced close to home—and they are crying out for agricultural reform. All this has made “local food” into everything from a movement buzzword to the newest darling of food trendsters.

   

  But now it’s time to take the conversation to the next level. That’s exactly what Philip Ackerman-Leist does in Rebuilding the Foodshed, in which he refocuses the local-food lens on the broad issue of rebuilding regional food systems that can replace the destructive aspects of industrial agriculture, meet food demands affordably and sustainably, and be resilient enough to endure potentially rough times ahead.

  
  Rebuilding the Foodshed: How to Create Local, Sustainable, and Secure Food Systems

• Open the Table Mediterranean Style
  with Yael Dolev
  February 20, 5:00 p.m.

  Food coach and professional cook Yael Dolev presents an afternoon of hands-on cooking featuring appetizing small plates from cuisines of the Mediterranean. RSVP to brent.wasser@williams.edu by Monday, February 4th.

• http://dolevfoodcoach.com/

•  Diane Purkiss: The Most Underrated Food in Europe, or Eating Well in England
  February 28th, 6:30 p.m., Griffin Hall, Room 3
  
  

  

  Diane Purkiss

  At the mention of English food, people usually wince, and then make jokes. Yet it was not ever thus, and some would say it isn’t thus now. Through a series of quick glances at restaurant and domestic menus from the Middle Ages to 2013, we will discover that English food is peculiarly dependent on external forces because of England’s small size and heavy urbanisation, but that it can be and has been and is sometimes still true local, European, artisanal food of exactly the kind prized by most modern foodies. When we eat a range of English cheeses, we will find their artisanal and farmhouse roots, while also learning how they were almost destroyed by well-meant post-war governments intent on health. A warning from history?

  Dr. Diane Purkiss is Fellow in English and a published historian at Keble College in Oxford.

• Fresh Fest Film Series
  March 9th & 10th, Images Cinema

  

  Growing Hope Against Hunger

  The third annual Farm and Food Film Festival features engaging films and speakers:

Saturday, 3/9
10:30 a.m. Growing Hope Against Hunger
• A Sesame Street special
• Post-film speaker: Ali Benjamin

1:00 p.m. Edible City
• Post-film speaker: Aleisha & Brian Gibbons of Berkshire Organics SEEDS
• Featuring soup from Wild Oats!
• Storey Publishing books for sale

More Than Honey

4:30 p.m. More than Honey
• East Coast premiere
• Post-film speakers: Tony Pisano and Alethea Morrison of the Northern Berkshire Beekeepers Association
• Storey Publishing books for sale

Sunday 3/10
4:00 p.m. A Home Movie: Rhodes Family Documentary
• A documentary about a South Williamstown farm family
• Speaker: filmmaker Bette Craig
• Featuring Cricket Creek Cheese and Philippe Besnard Bread

• 150-Mile Meals
  April 22, 2013
  Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner—all from local sources

  As part of No Impact Week, Williams Dining presents three meals featuring only products sourced from within 150 miles of Williamstown. Read about it here. Download the poster below!

• Good Food Jobs
  April 22, 2013
  6:00 p.m.
  Career Center
  Join Taylor Cocalis of Good Food Jobs in the Career Center for “Finding Your Place in the Food Movement: This Summer and Beyond.” Come for inspiration to pursue the food career of your dreams.