New England Public Radio

Study: Emails To Legislators Often Don’t Work

The arrival of the Trump Administration in Washington brought with it a huge volume of phone calls and emails. Congressional offices have said they’ve never seen so much correspondence from constituents — many who’re opposed to President Trump’s cabinet nominees and early policy announcements.

But new research finds this might not be the best way to influence your representatives — at least in state legislatures.

Click the audio player above to hear New England Public Radio’s Carrie Healy interview with UMass Lowell political scientist John Cluverius.

The Short List: Warren’s Competition, ‘Pioneer Valley’ v. ‘West Mass,’ No More High-Fives In Noho

NEPR'S WEEK IN REVIEW

What made The Short List this week?

  • Ardent Trump supporter Massachusetts State Representative Geoff Diehl is considering running against Senator Elizabeth Warren in 2018.
  • Should the long standing moniker Pioneer Valley be changed to West Mass?
  • Educators and police in Northampton, Massachusetts, are trying to come up with new ways to engage students after a program called “High Five Friday” was stopped due to concerns about some children’s reactions to law enforcement.

Click the audio player above to hear New England Public Radio’s Susan Kaplan explore these issues with Ron Chimelis of the Springfield Republican and Matt Szafranski of Western Mass Politics & Insight.

Online Ridicule Follows Re-branding Of ‘Pioneer Valley’ As ‘West Mass’

For decades, the three counties of Massachusetts along the Connecticut River  — Franklin, Hampshire and Hampden — have been collectively known as the Pioneer Valley, but some boosters of the region decided the moniker is old-fashioned and confusing. So the Greater Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Economic Development Council of Western Massachusetts spent $80,000 to hire a consultant from Oklahoma to re-brand this region.

The result: “West Mass.” It was launched with a two-minute video.

That video, and the brand, have been met with criticism and mockery on social media.

To hear a defense of “West Mass,” we spoke to Greg Chiecko, the director of sales for the Big E, and a board member of the visitors bureau.

To hear Henry Epp’s interview with Greg Chiecko, click the audio player above.

One Month In, Trump’s Biggest Massachusetts Supporter Looks Past Stumbles

There’s no one in Massachusetts more in President Donald Trump’s corner than state Representative Geoff Diehl.

The Republican from Whitman was the only state elected official to endorse Trump. Now that the new administration is about a month old, Diehl shrugged off criticism of the president’s early moves.

Click the audio player above to hear Diehl’s interview with New England Public Radio’s Susan Kaplan.

Springfield Symphony Pays Homage To Leontyne Price

Leontyne Price, the revered American opera singer, turned 90 last week. Springfield Symphony Orchestra Conductor Kevin Rhodes has been itching to find a way to celebrate her brilliant career. He’s doing it, at last, Saturday evening.

In her prime, Leontyne Price’s voice was as big as she was a star. Performers who shared the stage with her described it as an avalanche of sound, a cloud filled with silver.

She’s a grande dame of opera — some would argue the grand dame. And to become that as an African-American woman whose career began taking off in the mid-1950s is one of the things Rhodes admires tremendously about Price.

“You oftentimes hear the phrase that performers, artists — whatever — are ‘fragile people’,” Rhodes said in an interview this week. “And this is really quite true because every time we go on stage we put ourselves out there, and anybody can just totally ruin our month with the wrong comment.”

And Price had the “wrong comment” directed at her often. When she played her first televised appearance as Tosca in 1955 opposite a white tenor, nearly a dozen stations refused to broadcast the performance. And later, as an established star, she continued to experience segregation in hotels and restaurants.

“That she didn’t let any of that stop her from becoming one of the reigning artists of the 20th century, that is — for me — an amazing comment, when you talk about her emotional strength,” Rhodes said.

Rhodes for years has been wanting to pay tribute to that strength, and to Price’s incredible musical accomplishments.

“Every note that she produced was infused with thought, with love and with meaning, and this is what made her so special to me,” he said.

She’s also special to soprano Othalie Graham, whom Rhodes tapped to perform some of Price’s career-defining arias.

Like Price, Graham has a regal bearing and a voice that she herself describes as “enormous.” She’s also black, and said she wants to honor Price for paving the way for singers of color.

“For me, she really is what we all aspire to be,” Graham said.  “Not only an incredible artist, a beautiful woman, an important role model for every singer — not just every African-American or black singer — but  a really important part of our American history.”

As a girl, Graham’s music teachers noticed her big voice and steered her toward opera. She’d seen and loved Leontyne Price on TV, mainly in commercials for the United Negro College Fund.

When Graham’s father noticed Price was coming to perform in Toronto near their home, he bought tickets for Graham and her mother. A teenager at the time, Graham brought flowers to present to the diva after the performance. But Graham didn’t know about encores.

As Price exited the stage, “I thought, ‘Oh, no! She’s finished. That’s it!'” Graham remembered. “So I rushed forward with my flowers in front of the entire audience. I ran down the aisle, [saying] ‘Miss Price, Miss Price, I have flowers for you!'”

Price looked down — a long way from the stage to the floor — and asked, “Are those for me?”

Price took them and asked, “What would you like to me sing?”

As the audience screamed out requests, Graham said she wanted to hear the one aria she knew, from the death scene in Madame Butterfly.

“She said, ‘You stand right there,” Graham recalled. “And I stood right there in front of the stage. She walked off, came back and she sang it.”

A few decades later, Graham and Rhodes hatched the idea to work together on this program celebrating Leontyne Price’s life and legacy.

But Graham said she will “absolutely not” try to play the role of Price on stage.

“I mean, as a singer — as a younger singer especially — just the idea of that is unfathomable,” Graham said.

Leontyne Price won’t be in Springfield for the performance Saturday evening. A symphony spokeswoman said Price isn’t well enough to make the trip.

And if the legendary singer could attend?

“I think I would faint and not be able to sing at all!” Graham laughed.

“Right! Right!” Rhodes added. “Thank goodness she’s not there, right?”

After Months Of Debate Over ‘Indians,’ New Mascot Coming To Turners Falls

Turners Falls High school will be getting a new mascot, now that the Gill-Montague School Committee — following months of contentiousness — has voted to abolish the longtime “Indians” name from school sports teams.

The Tuesday night vote was 6 to 3, after the superintendent argued that using the Indian as a mascot perpetuates stereotypes and presents a mixed message over civil rights.

Committee member Marjorie Levenson said she’d gone back and forth on the issue, but she did her own historical research on Indian imagery.

Also, “I think I received 150 to 200 emails from various members and individuals from Indian tribes or Native Americans,” she said.

Levenson said diversity is more valued in today’s schools than it was in the early 20th century, when the mascot was introduced.

“One of my best friends says, ‘Well, I loved the mascot; It made me very happy to be a cheerleader.’ And I understand that,” Levenson said. “But if it makes a member of a Native American tribe feel it hurts them and it’s degrading to them, then I have to say to myself, ‘I guess morality or ethics prevail.'”

Some defenders of the Indian mascot have said it honors local Native American history.

School Committee chairman Mike Langknecht was among those voting against the mascot change, though he said he was mostly voting against the process. He said the committee had not finished debating the issue with full community participation, and while various stakeholders may have the chance to weigh-in on the next mascot, “one of those alternatives will not be the Indians — the Turners Falls Indians.”

Langknecht said the committee did agree to let emotions settle for a while. That means avoiding any discussion of a new mascot for at least two more public meetings.

Other schools in the area still use Native American images and mascots, including the Taconic Braves in Pittsfield; the Indians in Ware and North Brookfield; and the Red Raiders in Athol and Springfield.