Big Woods Voices to perform at Great Falls Discovery Center

TURNERS FALLS — Big Woods Voices will perform at the Great Falls Discovery Center, 2 Avenue A, on Friday, April 12, at 7 p.m.

Big Woods Voices celebrates a cappella vocal harmony through arrangements grown from American roots genres, world folk styles, poets old and new, and Will Danforth’s creativity. The group consists of Danforth, an award-winning, multi-instrumental solo acoustic artist and a member of the Brattleboro Camerata; Amanda Witman, founder of the Brattleboro Pub Sing; Becky Graber, director of the Brattleboro Women’s Chorus; and Alan Blood, longtime member of area groups such as the Blanche Moyse Chorale, I Cantori, Blue Moon and House Blend.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. There is a suggested sliding-scale donation of $6 to $15 that supports educational programming at the center. Children will be admitted for free. Coffee and homemade baked goods will be available.

For more information, call the Great Falls Discovery Center at 413-863-3221. For more information about Big Woods Voices, visit bigwoodsvoices.com.

Forrant to speak on Eastern European immigration

TURNERS FALLS — The Great Falls Discovery Center will host a talk on Eastern European immigration and industrialization in Massachusetts on Sunday, April 14, from 2 to 3:30 p.m.

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Polish and other Eastern European immigrants arrived in the Connecticut River Valley to begin new lives as farmers and factory workers. Attendees can learn about this migration in a talk by Robert Forrant, professor of history at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Forrant is co-editor with Mary Anne Trasciatti of “Where are the Workers: Interpreting Labor and Working-Class History at Museums and Historic Sites.”

This free event is presented by the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association and funded by Mass Humanities as part of the Expanding Massachusetts Stories initiative.