Seth Rogovoy to Speak at Habitat for Humanity Brunch

(photo Sabina Curti)

(photo Sabina Curti)

(HUDSON, N.Y.) – Author, editor and cultural commentator Seth Rogovoy will be the featured speaker at the annual Columbia County Brunch for Habitat at Helsinki Hudson on Sunday, November 16, 2014, at 11:30am. Rogovoy, who has called the Berkshires and the Hudson Valley home for nearly four decades and whose professional life has in large part consisted of writing about its cultural life, will speak about the intersection between home and culture, and how the arts are an integral element of what makes a community, using both Hudson – where he has lived for nearly three years — and the Berkshires as examples.

Tickets are $45 each or two for $80. Reservations are strongly suggested and can be made by calling the Habitat office at 518-828-0892.

Columbia County Habitat for Humanity executive director Brenda Adams said, “Since Habitat is about home and community, Seth will speak about the impact of arts and culture on both. Given Seth’s wide-ranging interests and knowledge, it’s sure to be a very rich and stimulating talk.”

Habitat President Sara McWilliams added, “We’re so pleased that Seth will share his insights and experience with us. He’s lived in Hudson for almost three years and has seen first-hand how Habitat homes can change a community.”

Seth Rogovoy has been a well-known media figure in the greater Northeast and New England region for the past 30 years. Previously the editor-in-chief of the now-defunct Berkshire Living magazine and before that the longtime rock critic for the Berkshire Eagle, Rogovoy is now the editor and publisher of the Rogovoy Report, a multi-platform online magazine and e-newsletter serving the greater Hudson Valley and Berkshire regions.

The Rogovoy Report is also a weekly segment that has aired on WAMC Northeast Public Radio for the last 20 years, previewing and reviewing cultural highlights in the region.

Rogovoy is the author of “Bob Dylan: Prophet Mystic Poet” (Scribner, 2009) and “The Essential Klezmer” (Algonquin, 2000) and continues to write and speak frequently about the intersection of Jewish themes and popular culture for such publications as the Forward and Hadassah Magazine. He also contributes to the Hudson Valley magazine Chronogram and WBUR’s online arts magazine, The ARTery.

Rogovoy is the artistic director of the annual YIDSTOCK: Festival of New Yiddish Music at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Mass., and advises cultural and social organizations on programming, press and social media strategies.

As a Hudson resident, Seth writes frequently about music and art events taking place in the city’s music venues, art galleries, and experimental performance spaces, as well as offering commentary about the overall social, cultural and political life of what he calls “this exciting, vibrant community.”

Columbia County Habitat, founded in 1993, builds safe, affordable housing for lower-income working families. Construction is currently underway at 208-212 Columbia Street in Hudson on Habitat’s 17th and 18th homes and its second pair of Passive Townhouses. Habitat volunteers perform most of the work on the build. The selected partner families are each responsible for contributing 300 hours of sweat equity to the project. Including the Burgess and Forbes families, who will live in the new Passive Townhouses, Columbia County Habitat has changed the lives and futures of 82 people, including 50 children. Habitat has returned $2 million in developed property to the tax rolls and spent over $1.5 million on local goods and services since 1993.

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