Fireside, a collaboration between The Mastheads, Pittsfield Public Schools, and other local organizations, provides poetry programming for children and adults that places students at the center of the literary culture of their city.

Named after the “Fireside Poets,” a group that includes writers with ties to Pittsfield including Oliver Wendell Holmes and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the program shares in the spirit of poetry as something to gather around, and to draw together families, communities, and schoolrooms. (Click here to view public displays of student work!)

At the elementary level, our ten-week workshops make creative writing feel significant, empowering, and fun.

We use local writers and artists as inspiration for writing classes and workshops, helping students to see themselves as part of a vibrant local literary culture, and making creative writing feel concrete and familiar. We make every semester unique by bringing in guest artists like M.A.P.S. and singer-songwriter Johnny Irion, and taking field trips to our writing studios at Arrowhead or other local cultural institutions.

Our partner schools have included Morningside Community School, Conte Community School, Crosby Educational Academy, Muddy Brook Elementary School, Undermountain Elementary School, Hancock Elementary School, and Pittsfield High School.

At the middle school through adult level, we offer workshops tailored to each group of students.

Workshops can range from a series of one to ten workshops for any number of students. Each workshop focuses on themes specific to the group, for example, poetry & food with our partner Roots Rising, or poetry & community with our partners the Westside Legends.

At the end of each course, we celebrate student work.

For every course, we create a class anthology, host a poetry reading and pizza party, and incorporate student work into public text installations throughout the county. Past projects have included tree tags and sidewalk paintings on North Street, tree straps at The Clark, billboards, and engravings on park walls.

Every spring, we host Party in Kellogg Park, sponsored by Mill Town Foundation, where students read poetry and perform Fireside original songs composed with the help of Johnny Irion. Our partners Flying Cloud and Berkshire Art Center join in to make this neighborhood arts party complete.

New! The Fireside Teachers Institute

In the fall of 2023, we launched an education program for Pittsfield Public School teachers to learn how to use poetry in their classrooms as a tool for self-expression, skill-building, and building a joyful, connected class culture. Our second teacher cohort launches Fall 2024 at Morningside Community School!

Fireside is generously supported in part by The Blackwing Foundation. Find out more about them here!