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Music with Tropa Magica, 'The Epic of Violence' play, Wine Thunderdome

Today, we get to play as explorers in our glasses, in our ears and on our stages.

Tomorrow evening, a theater work that highlights the experiences of women in an ongoing conflict overlooked by many will be presented at Holyoke Media. A company of six actors will bring the stories of Sudanese women in their mother tongue for a theatrical production of “The Epic of Violence.” We talk with the writer behind the work, former Holyoke resident Tamador Gibreel.

We also get the sounds of Cumbia’s future straight from L.A.. Secret Planet brings Tropa Magica to Easthampton this evening at the Marigold Theater for an intoxicating amalgam of cumbia, psych rock, surf and punk. The group joins us in the studio for Live Music Friday.

And at Dare Bottleshop & Provisions in Lenox, Mary and Ben Daire have prepared another blind tasting for us to try two wines that were crowd favorites at recent wine festivals in town. So, we pit them against each other while learning how you can taste over 100 beverages next weekend in the Berkshires.

Christopher “Monte'' Belmonte is host and executive producer of NEPM's The Fabulous 413. He was born and raised in Massachusetts and has been a radio host in western Massachusetts for the last 20 years — the last 17 of them as host of Mornings with Monte on The River 93.9/WRSI.
Kaliis Smith is a radio host and producer for NEPM's The Fabulous 413. She was most recently host and producer at The River 93.9/WRSI where she appeared on Mornings with Monte for the Nerdwatch segment and hosted weekday evenings.