|
|
|
Joe Manning is a writer, photographer, composer, lyricist, poet and artist. His book, Steeples: Sketches of North Adams (Flatiron Press 1997), is in its third printing. It has been required reading for several courses at Williams College and Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. His most recent book is Disappearing Into North Adams (Flatiron Press 2001). In June 2002, Manning contributed a lengthy essay about the social history of the River Street neighborhood in North Adams for Porches: Art and Renewal on River Street, a book edited by the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. Manning created and is the advisor for several oral history programs in the North Adams public schools, for which he obtained a grant. Since 1998, he has helped plan and run Neighborhood EXPO, an all-day interactive celebration of North Adams neighborhoods and history sponsored by the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition. He is a frequent lecturer about North Adams history for Elderhostel programs at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. Since 1999, Manning has written a monthly column called "Bytes from the Bean" for NorthAdams.com, a community website (http://www.iberkshires.com/columnist.php?colm_id=4&archive=1). The column also appears in The Advocate, a weekly newspaper published in the Berkshires. His poetry has been published frequently in The Berkshire Review. With collaborator Steve Vozzolo, he wrote and produced I Love Baseball, an album of new songs about the game. It is included in the collection of baseball music at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Their song about painter Norman Rockwell, "Norman Always Knew," was recorded by Arlo Guthrie and performed by Mr. Guthrie at Tanglewood in Lenox, Massachusetts. Manning was born in Washington, DC, and grew up in Southern Maryland. He served four years in the United States Air Force as a medical corpsman. In 1970, he received a BA in Sociology from the State University of New York College at Cortland. He was a caseworker for the Connecticut Department of Social Services from 1970 until his retirement in 1999. Manning and his wife live in Florence, Massachusetts.
|
|
Flatiron Press on Shop Western Mass
|
