Daily Hampshire Gazette - Area briefs: Holyoke Brick Race returns; Info session for volunteers for restorative justice program; Chorus performance explores Quabbin Reservoir history

View from the tower at the Quabbin Reservoir. GAZETTE FILE PHOTO

Modified: 10-15-2024 4:59 PM

HOLYOKE — The Great Holyoke Brick Race is set to return to Race Street on Saturday, from 12-3 p.m. People of all ages are invited to design and build their own gravity-powered brick racers and compete for the title of fastest brick on the block.

The event is free to attend and free to participate. Registration for the race begins at 11 a.m. on the day of the event, and with space limited to about 50 racers, participants are encouraged to register online as soon as possible. Registration is available at holyokeart.com.

Participants are challenged to construct a race car that incorporates a common building brick as the main component. Each racer will be judged on both the sculptural quality and the speed of their creation as it races down an inclined track, powered solely by gravity.

This year a trophy for Slowest Car to cross the finish line has been added to 1st, 2nd, 3rd, Most Creative and Best Crash. For full race specifications and additional details, visit thegreatholyokebrickrace.com.

In addition to the thrilling brick races, Race Street will also host 413’s Finest Car Show from 12-5 p.m., showcasing some of the most stunning vehicles from across the region.

Info session for volunteers for restorative justice program

NORTHAMPTON — An information session about how to volunteer for the local Communities for Restorative Justice (C4RJ) program will be offered Thursday, Oct. 17 on Zoom at 1 p.m. The session will provide information about the work done by C4RJ as well as the new volunteer training being offered.

The Northwestern district attorney’s office partners with Communities for Restorative Justice (C4RJ), a community-based restorative justice organization, to divert certain cases out of the court system and into a restorative justice process. The work that C4RJ does is primarily volunteer-driven; the organization is looking for new volunteers from the community. C4RJ provides significant training to prepare volunteers to work with restorative justice principles and the C4RJ process.

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Anyone interested in joining the information session should email C4RJ Program Director, Yael Yaaloz, at [email protected].

Chorus performance explores Quabbin Reservoir history

AMHERST — Boston-based choir Nightingale Vocal Ensemble presents “un/bodying/s” by Belchertown composer Gregory Brown at 7 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 20 at Grace Church, 14 Boltwood Ave, Amherst.

“un/bodying/s”is a choral work that explores the history of the populations displaced by the Quabbin Reservoir in western Massachusetts, including the Native Americans moved by incoming Europeans, and then those Europeans relocated by the state when creating the massive reservoir that supplies Boston with water.

Gregory and librettist Todd Hearon combined forces in 2017 to tell these stories from a variety of perspectives, including the history of the wildlife that, like the human refugees, have fled and since returned to this land.

The music undulates as if at times floating on water, or hidden under it, or soaring above it, reflecting up. Suddenly a New England hymn will emerge, then be replaced with a more distant, elusive texture, as the eternal search for Atlantis continues.

The work was commissioned and premiered in 2017 by Philadelphia’s multi-Grammy award winning choir — The Crossing. Nightingale now brings this piece to Massachusetts for the first time, performing both in Amherst (near Quabbin) and Boston (where Quabbin’s water flows).

Tickets are available through the ensemble’s website: nightingalevocalensemble.com