July 27, 2026: Free western arts

We celebrate coming back from adventures by reading about them. What Came West is a brand new book from bi-coastal, sometimes Conway resident Josh Weil that tells a story of expansion and preservation from a perspective not often seen in westerns. We speak with the author about this new novel, and his many inspirations and innovations within, before you can ask your own questions at his book release event at Odyssey Bookshop in south Hadley on July 30th. Summer has us thinking about beaches and the wildlife that you can see on them, including whales that definitely are not sunfish. This week the Triplex Cinemas in Great Barrington is satisfying all those cravings with a little AC thrown in with a showing of Free Willy this Wednesday, and we’ll talk with one of the film’s stars who happens to make their home in the southern berkshires, Jayne Atkinson. And Mr. Universe, Kainaat Studios’ and former Hampshire College astronomer Salman Hameed, returns to gazing at the skies and screens both with the dual spectacles of Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, and a brand new artistic observatory nestled in the desert of New Mexico