News
The Iron Horse rides again: The storied Northampton club will reopen at last, May 15
By STEVE PFARRER Staff Writer In late March, the fabled Iron Horse Music Hall, slated to reopen in mid May, was still a pretty raw construction site. Boards, pipes, boxes, and other materials were piled on the floors, along the walls, and on tables. Extension cords to...
Almost showtime: 33 Hawley, Northampton’s community arts center, is putting on its finishing touches
By STEVE PFARRER Staff Writer It’s been a long run — but the finish line is now in view. The Northampton Community Arts Trust building, largely or partly shuttered for most of this year, is poised to reopen, as work to make the final improvements in the...
Taking up arms to help others: Western Mass Arm Wrestling League puts athletics, theater on display in the name of philanthropy
By EMILY THURLOW For the Advocate A woman dressed in pajamas walks into a Cottage Street bar and challenges a random stranger to an arm-wrestling match. The circumstances sound like the set-up of a joke. It’s not. That woman is Rose Lynch of Easthampton, and over the...
Reviving a local treasure: Parlor Room raising renovation funds to fix up Iron Horse Music Hall; reopening set for May 1
By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL Staff Writer When Chris Freeman was in eighth grade, his father took him to the Iron Horse Music Hall for his first concert at the venue, where he was immediately entranced by the atmosphere, sitting at one of the tables by the wall plastered...
The Alternative Pioneers: Founders spill the tea as the Valley Advocate turns 50
By BOB FLAHERTY For the Advocate If it was just that hippie rag, as detractors liked to rank it, well we hippie ragamuffins devoured it front to back. It spoke our language, the F-laden part included, and it was as underground as the music we toked to. But we soon...
New life for Iron Horse: Parlor Room buys longtime entertainment venue, plans to reopen early next year
By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL Staff Writer At long last, the Iron Horse Music Hall has a new owner, and music could be emanating from the venerable Center Street location as soon as February. The Parlor Room, a nearby music venue run by a nonprofit, announced last month...
From deviant to decriminalized: The surprising progressive roots of the War on Drugs
By ROBIN GOLDSTEIN For the Advocate Since the birth of the progressive era, western Massachusetts has been a hotbed of progressive activism. But some of that activist history might surprise you. Progressivism was a Protestant social reform movement that swept America...
Lights, camera, action — and more: Black box theater at Holyoke Media becomes a forum for the arts and other events
By STEVE PFARRERStaff Writer Musicians are always looking for another venue to play. Actors and playwrights search for a new place to stage a show. Dancers want another floor to move on. At Holyoke Media, they all can find room. The independent, nonprofit...
Time to swing: Jazz drummer and South Hadley native Joe Farnsworth returns to the Valley for a concert honoring his idol, Max Roach
By STEVE PFARRER Staff Writer Joe Farnsworth was 10 or 11 when he got the chance to meet a drumming legend: Max Roach. It was at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in 1979, where Roach taught. Farnsworth, who grew up in South Hadley, remembers how one of his...
‘We’re Still Here’: Exhibit designed to remind visitors that Native peoples today are part of Western Massachusetts
Growing up in Springfield, Aprell May knew a few bits and pieces about her Native American ancestry. But it was not something that family members talked about much. In fact, May says that for years she thought of herself as a “Lost Bird” or a “Missing Feather”...
THAT SPECIAL PLACE: Now free to speak about it, these local icons describe their favorite spots to get high
In short, there’s simply not A more congenial spot For happily ever aftering Than … here … in … OK, our little Happy Valley ain’t exactly Camelot, but it’s got a lot going for it. Even in the midst of quarantines and arguing over masks and...
A stunning sight: Easthampton man commissions dragon painting on his downtown home as an anniversary gift
Stephen Parmenter married his wife Nina on a special, palindromic date: Nov. 11, 2011. Read another way: 11/11/11. So as the couple’s 11th anniversary approaches, Parmenter knew his anniversary gift to his wife had to be special. Nina is originally from Vietnam,...
Late-night lounge coming to downtown Northampton
Cafe Balagan, the Main Street coffee shop associated with the Balagan Cannabis dispensary next door, has opened for late-night service. Rachael Workman, one of the owners of Cafe Balagan and Balagan Cannabis, said that she and her fellow owners, who are all in their...
Blazing Their Own Trail: Only the 2nd community in the nation to officially commit to reparations for its Black residents, Amherst is in important and unchartered territory
When she was 10 years old, a fourth-grade teacher asked Debora Bridges during a classroom lesson “what it felt like to be a slave” as a “little colored girl.” It happened in 1961. In Amherst. Although her mother and grandmother were able to scrounge up an apology...
Illegal grow operations may be ‘tip of the iceberg’ in western Mass.
When police raided a house at 276 Amherst St. in Granby earlier this year, they described finding an “elaborate” marijuana grow operation with nearly 1,400 plants, an extensive lighting system for six grow rooms and a packaging operation. The person they arrested,...
Keeping Tabs on Pot Purity
The machines inside Analytics Labs seem like futuristic, esoteric devices. Workers in lab coats move around instruments with names like Agilent High-Performance Liquid Chromatography System, performing what seems like complicated science experiments. But the work that...Pot at your doorstep
Freshly restocked with three new members, the Cannabis Control Commission is gearing up for a year that will include the implementation of recently-approved regulations that allow for home delivery of non-medical marijuana, continuing to press for legislation that...
Moving forward: How to leave the Trump-era behind and forge a new future
For a time, it really looked like the large-scale repudiation of President Donald Trump so many of us had hoped for would come to pass — the polls seemed to predict it and Democrats were racking up mail-in and early vote advantages across the board. But instead the...
A crisis hits the home: What’s being done to help those facing eviction in a pandemic
All they want is a clean slate. After nine-plus months of dealing with the tumultuous life upheaval caused by the pandemic – on-again, off-again jobs, opening and closing of public schools and the overall anxiety posed by COVID-19 – Paige Spaulding and her husband,...
Home grown: Individuals getting into the marijuana-growing game, but stigma remains
If things smell a bit skunky in the neighborhood, don’t automatically point the figure at those nocturnal creatures. That odor may be emanating from cannabis plants that have cropped up, so to speak, at homes throughout the Pioneer Valley. It’s been four years since...
CCC gives final approval to marijuana delivery framework
BOSTON — With the threat of legal challenges looming, state regulators gave final approval on Nov. 30 to new regulations that will reshape the legal marijuana industry to include home delivery businesses initially available only to social equity program participants...
A Movement’s Moment: How Springfield is responding to a scathing DOJ report
Across Court Square in the city of Springfield the words, “BLACK LIVES MATTER,” are painted on Court Street in 20-foot-tall, bright yellow letters — a powerful symbol of a movement that has taken on a new urgency nationally and in our own backyard in this chaotic year...
Changes in policing under way in other communities
While Springfield grapples with the fallout of a highly critical U.S. Department of Justice report, other police departments throughout the Valley are implementing changes in the wake of a national wave of protests following the death of George Floyd. In Northampton,...
Despite setbacks due to pandemic, future bright for budding cannabis industry
Nearly two years after the first recreational marijuana sales began in Massachusetts, it’s safe to say the budding industry is contributing mightily to the state and regional economy, despite a significant hit to sales earlier this spring when the coronavirus pandemic...
Vision 2020: Not what we had in mind
I remember when I first got into journalism covering community planning meetings with quaint names like “Vision 2020,” about what this year would be like. Now here we are, and I can honestly say I don’t think any amount of planning would have prepared us for the...
How Northampton helped the women’s suffrage movement cross the finish line
On the evening of Oct. 29, 1915, a group of 500 women of the Equal Suffrage League, dressed in white, and wearing, across their chests, gold sashes emblazoned with VOTES FOR WOMEN, gathered in the alleys around their headquarters on Center Street in Northampton. At...
Key voting dates ahead of the 2020 Presidential Election
With the Nov. 3 General Election less and a month away, here are some key voting dates compiled by the League of Women Voters of Northampton: Voting timeline Sept. 14: Vote by mail applications are mailed to all voters for the election. Oct. 17-30: Early in-person...
The virtual parlor room: Live-streamed shows organized by Signature Sounds net musicians $37,000
Kris Delmhorst, holding an acoustic guitar in her lap, wore a hopeful smile as she sat recently in a room in her Shelburne Falls home and stared into a video camera. “I’m here,” she said. “Are you here? I think we’re here together, people … thank you for coming.” Like...
‘We are still here’: Cancer Connection offers phone, online support during difficult time
As deadly as it has been, COVID-19 doesn’t have the historical track record of what has consistently been America’s second leading cause of death: cancer. Yet the novel coronavirus has certainly made matters more difficult for people struggling with cancer and for...
Empty Arms group supports parents who’ve experienced loss
It was October 2018 when Emily Collins of Holyoke, now 30, had her second child, Sebastian, who was born 12½ weeks premature. Sebastian lived for 15 days, then died at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield. Collins’ friends and family, apart from her sister and...
Supporting Nearby Food Producers While Maintaining Social Distance
No farms, no food. That bumper sticker slogan feels more apt than ever in this time when government officials are determining what counts as an “essential service.” Could there ever have been a doubt that those growing the food to feed us pass the test?...
Biking in the Valley: Even with COVID-19, bicycling is the way to go for many
Andrea Hairston was already a pretty serious bike commuter, riding through most kinds of weather to her teaching job at Smith College, when she had an encounter several years ago with the late Frances Crowe of Northampton. It was a cold winter day, with snow coming...
Correcting The Record: You Should Wear Masks
Now firmly in the second month of intense disruption caused by the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, it’s getting clearer to see that information is among our most highly prized assets as we continue to shelter in place and undertake other efforts to flatten the...
Educators rising to remote learning challenges
Schools across the state, country and the globe are closed amid the coronavirus pandemic. Here in Massachusetts, though schools are slated to reopen at the beginning of May, they’re now closed per Gov. Charlie Baker’s order. In the meantime, local educators in the...
We needed unemployment reform years ago, and there’s a crisis now
I’m sad to report that I was among those laid off last week by Valley Advocate parent company Newspapers of New England, which also owns the Daily Hampshire Gazette and the Greenfield Recorder. As you can see, I’m still here writing the Advocate’s...
Seeking Asylum in Western Mass: Part 3 of 3 — Supporting trans asylum seekers in the Valley
Editor’s note: Due to the dangers facing those seeking asylum and their families in their home countries, as well as the sensitive natures of their legal cases, the Advocate is using pseudonyms Natty, Eva, and María for asylum seekers featured in this story and...
Bizarro Briefs: The most useful COVID-19 app yet
The most useful COVID-19 app yet Yes, we all know that toilet paper is in short supply as a result of coronavirus panic shopping, but here’s something new: an app that lets you know exactly how many poops you have left before your toilet paper stockpile runs out....
Bizarro briefs: Today’s forecast — droplets of iron
Today’s forecast: Droplets of iron Swiss and other European astronomers examining a hot, Jupiter-like planet 390 light-years away have discovered that rain falls there in an unusual form: iron droplets. The mega planet, called Wasp-76b, is so hot on its sunny side —...
Seeking Asylum in Western Mass: Part 2 of 3 — Creating a welcoming home for those forced to flee
Editor’s note: Due to the dangers facing those seeking asylum and their families in their home countries, as well as the sensitive nature of their legal cases, the Advocate is using pseudonyms Valentina, Isabel, Ramon, and Santiago for asylum seekers featured in this...
Editorial: A pandemic is a time to remember the vulnerable
As news pours in regarding the coronavirus, it is becoming clear the scale of how many people’s lives are affected in such dramatic ways. In terms of the Advocate’s function as the keeper of the community calendar, we’re having to reinvent as we go with the vast...
‘It’s sort of hanging over everything’: Local doctor volunteering at Mexico border talks about coronavirus concerns at refugee camps
David Katz, a retired family practice physician from Northampton, arrived in Brownsville, Texas, on March 14 to help refugees across the border living in a camp in Matamoros, Mexico. He planned on arriving with two other physicians, one of which is also from...
Podcast: Seeking Asylum in Western Mass Part 1, fleeing violence to arrive
Staff writer Luis Fieldman speaks about the first part of his three-part series on asylum seekers coming to Western Mass. This part focuses on the stories of Ramon and Santiago, whose names we changed to protect their identities as they escaped violence in their home...
Bizarro Briefs: More Than Just Birdcage Liner
More Than Just Birdcage Liner At the Advocate, we’ve had our fair share of readers disagreeing with our coverage claim the only thing this paper is good for is lining their birdcages. Well, an Australian newspaper took things a step further, and printed extra blank...
Seeking Asylum in Western Mass Part 1 of 3: Fleeing danger and violence to arrive in the Valley
Editor’s note: Due to the dangers facing those seeking asylum and their families in their home countries, as well as the sensitive nature of their legal cases, the Advocate is using pseudonyms Ramon and Santiago for two asylum seekers featured in this story and...
Editorial: Investigating the treatment of asylum seekers in the U.S.
This week, the Advocate begins a three-part series by Luis Fieldman about asylum seekers who have made it to western Massachusetts, and those who have helped to get them here. Political stability is something we in the United States take for granted. Even having the...
Seeking Asylum Series: Trump has made seeking asylum harder
Over the course of the Trump presidency, seeking asylum in the United States has become more difficult. Below are some policies implemented by the Trump administration that have placed additional obstacles before asylum seekers in recent years. Detaining asylum...
Bizarro Briefs: Gecko CPR
Gecko CPR A man from Australia might have saved a tiny gecko’s life after he fished the lizard out of his beer at a pub and then performed CPR on the animal when it seemingly stopped breathing. The man thought staff at the Amble Inn in Corindi Beach, New South Wales...
Editorial: Lessons from a less-than-super Tuesday
It’s Opposite Day in the Democratic primary. Super Tuesday was forecast to be a major victory for the progressive movement, culminating in a possibly insurmountable delegate lead for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, with moderates hopelessly divided. Instead, former Vice...
Coronavirus under the Microscope: Western Mass hospitals, municipalities, and individuals prepare for a possible outbreak
With countries across the world responding to the threat of coronavirus outbreaks, here in Massachusetts and, more locally, in the Pioneer Valley, local hospitals and municipalities are working to prepare and plan for a potential outbreak of the new respiratory viral...
Editorial: Preserving community amid a communicable disease
I’ve watched with growing concern the reports about the coronavirus morphing from an outbreak local to a region of China into what health experts are warning could become a full-blown pandemic. It’s important to state up front that the risk of contracting the virus in...
Local drone pilots organize national protest against FAA rule changes, citing privacy and expense concerns
A local man concerned about new rules proposed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) affecting drone pilots is organizing a national protest in Washington, D.C., this weekend. Michael Duhl of Deerfield is the head organizer of “Help Save Our Hobby,” which will...
Free recycling in Western Mass is about to end: What people are doing about it at the local and state level
For three years, since China instituted stricter purity standards in the recyclable materials they accept, a single piece of paper has shielded most Western Mass communities from the higher price of recycling experienced in much of the country: a multi-year contract...
Editorial: It really is time to abolish ICE
Tactical forces are descending upon Massachusetts. What is the existential threat that brought this about? A hunt for the undocumented among us. WBUR reported last week that “SWAT-like immigration officers” are in Boston, and possibly will be coming to other parts of...
Bizarro Briefs: The Bite of a Yogi
The Bite of a Yogi A 46-year-old Maryland woman is charged in court with second-degree assault after she allegedly bit a man’s neck for peeing on her yoga mat in late January. The story appeared in the Baltimore Sun last week. Although there are still details to come...
Endorsement: Bernie Sanders for President
Democrats, and truly all Americans outside of the president’s devoted base, have now been spending years trying to think up who best to challenge Trump to vote him out of office. The editorial staff at the Valley Advocate is unanimous. Our choice is Vermont Senator...
Bizarro Briefs: You’ve Got (lots of) Mail
You’ve Got (lots of) Mail In what we can only imagine was a scene reminiscent of Harry Potter’s acceptance to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a couple from Ohio received 55,000 identical letters. But the contents of those letters — and the reason there...
Some Advocate Accolades: Staff wins 4 NENPA awards at this year’s newspaper conference
The Advocate took home four awards at this year’s New England Better Newspaper Competition, including a first place award for a front page design by Jennifer Levesque. The winning design of the March 28 Valley Advocate earlier this year featured the cover story...
Letters to the Editor: Are we there yet?
Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we now living under the rule of an authoritarian style government? Do we have a supreme leader who rules as a dictator want-to-be? Has our government become subject to fascism? Have we sacrificed freedom for a...
Bizarro Briefs: A Drug Lord’s Zoo
A Drug Lord’s Zoo There likely wouldn’t be hippopotamuses living in Columbia if it weren’t for Pablo Escobar. After his death in 1993, the drug lord’s abandoned zoo was dismantled, and while African animals such as rhinos and giraffes were given new homes, there...E-Edition
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