From the erotic to the folksy - Inkberry has summer covered

Events this summer at Inkberry, located at 63 Main St. in North Adams, run from a workshop on preserving family history to a workshop on writing erotica.

“We’re sort of hoping that with that kind of spectrum we can make everybody happy,” said Rachel Barenblat, one of the founders of Inkberry, a nonprofit cultural organization. “We want to encourage more people to come and enjoy what we do, because the response from those who do come has been really positive.”

“We are a literary arts organization dedicated to fostering the love of literature and reading and writing,” she said. “And we offer writing workshops and book discussion groups and a reading series that features both local and national talent.”

On June 22, there will be a “Happy Birthday, Inkberry” event, which will feature the three cofounders of Inkberry reading new work.

“And we have a really fantastic summer slate,” she said. “We’re offering all kinds of really exciting workshops.”

Inkberry’s summer events include:

“It seems that people are so busy during the summer,” Barenblat said. “There’s so much else going, that we’re modifying our schedule a little bit to offer more short things in the summer and then more extended things during the colder seasons.”

As for the birthday party, Inkberry started offering programs to the public in April, 2001, and started its reading series last June with nationally known poet Donald Hall.

“So it’s really the happy birthday of the reading series,” Barenblat said. “And we’ve had events every month since then.”

She said the response to Inkberry has been strong and positive. A recent Midrash writing workshop in April had 15 participants, and for a reading of two local writers 60 people attended.

The view from Main Street

What does Inkberry think about being on Main Street, where it has been located in January?

“Oh, we love it. It’s so great to be in the middle of downtown. We get drop-in traffic, people just sort of stop in,” she said, adding that the people who stop in are primarily local. “And we are open four afternoons a week; people can just come here and work on their writing or check out our resource library here, with books about writing, or books about getting published, literary journals, that kind of thing.”

Inkberry is open Wednesday through Saturday, from 1 to 5 p.m.

She said the storefront space, most recently the Crystal Unicorn bookstore, has worked out very well.

“There’s still some work we’d like to do, but it’s been a fun space. Everything you see here is donated, with the exception of the art exhibit [of handmade artists’ books], which is on loan.”

These include row upon row of classroom chairs contributed by Williams College.

What’s her feeling about what’s going on on Main Street?

“I think this is a really exciting time to be in North Adams, and especially to be downtown, right in the heart of the action,” she said. “I have a feeling that North Adams is on the cusp of some really exciting developments. I think there’s a great energy. I think people are really enthusiastic about being here.

“And in some ways, I think, Inkberry is in a similar position. I think we’re exactly where we wanted to be 16, 18 months into this process,” she said. “And I think like North Adams, and along with North Adams, we’re hovering on the cusp of really fabulous success.”

“We have a lot of tremendous plans, and we’re not entirely sure when we will put all of them into action. It’s contingent on a lot of factors,” she said. “For instance, at some point we would love to run a national writers conference in North Adams, where people from all over the country would come here together.

“It’s a beautiful place, there’s a lot of great stuff going on. There’s no reason why we couldn’t make it happen,” she said. “But many things are dependent on funding with us, as with everyone else.”

Inkberry can be reached at 664-0775.