Mixtape: The darkness is coming: New releases from Burial Grid and Eyrie House Ruins
By Jennifer Levesque For the Valley Advocate Burial Grid “NORD Compendium” I’ve been following Adam Kozak’s musical career since we were both in high school. Dare I say, close to 25 years later, Kozak is still one of my favorite local musicians. His latest conquest,...
Mixtape: ‘Let the Good Times Roll’: Eddie Japan with Greg Hawkes, playing the music of The Cars
By Jennifer Levesque For the Valley Advocate There are some bands whose music stand the test of time. Whether it’s their toe-tapping melodies or poignant lyrics, some songs always resonate with new audiences. In the late ’70s when rock and pop music were getting a...
Painting into the depths of motherhood: ‘How to Bear the Unbearable Body: The Artwork of Emily Orling’ is at the A.P.E. Gallery through Nov. 1
By CAROLYN BROWN Staff Writer A colorful exhibition of surrealist artworks layered with personal and cultural symbolism, “How to Bear the Unbearable Body: The Artwork of Emily Orling,” is up at the A.P.E. Gallery in Northampton through Saturday, Nov. 1. Though the...
You are what you ink: UMass exhibition blurs lines between art, tattoos, and identity
By CAROLYN BROWN Staff Writer It’s not often that you see tattoo art on display in an art gallery, but a University of Massachusetts alum will soon change that with an upcoming exhibition. Alex Leon Sherker’s art show “Who Are You? Who Am AI?” will be at the Augusta...
Apples and art, the perfect autumn afternoon?: Eighth biennial Art in the Orchard on view at Park Hill Orchard
By CAROLYN BROWN Staff Writer Park Hill Orchard in Easthampton will host its eighth biennial Art in the Orchard exhibition, a half-mile sculpture trail on the orchard’s grounds, until Sunday, Nov. 30. The orchard itself is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, but the...
The battle for equality goes back nearly two centuries: New book examines efforts by Black Americans to fight segregation in public transport
By STEVE PFARRER For the Valley Advocate Along with Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Kwame Ture, Rosa Parks is one of the celebrated names of the civil rights movement: the Montgomery, Alabama woman who refused to move from her seat on a bus in 1955, sparking a...
A farewell tour in four-part harmony: New York Voices headline Northampton Jazz Fest, culminating two days of live music, Sept. 26 & 27
By CAROLYN BROWN Staff Writer The Northampton Jazz Festival will return on Friday, Sept. 26, and Saturday, Sept. 27, for live jazz at a variety of downtown Northampton venues. This year’s headliner will be New York Voices, a vocal jazz quartet that began as an...
Arrive hungry: Taste of Northampton expands to two days, Sept. 13 and 14
By CAROLYN BROWN Staff Writer Foodies, rejoice: Taste of Northampton is almost here again — and it’s even bigger than last year. The food festival Taste of Northampton will return this year on Saturday, Sept. 13, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 14, from 11...
Sci-fi or not so far-fetched?: New opera ‘The Onion’ explores the power and perils of AI-driven memory retrieval
By CAROLYN BROWN Staff Writer If you could exist inside any memory from your past as it happened around you, would you? The new opera “The Onion,” about an eponymous AI device that can bring back memories in an immersive way, will premiere at Amherst College’s Holden...
A feeling you can’t replace: Body slams and feisty feuds, Pioneer Valley wrestling has it all
By Hannah Bevis For the Valley Advocate All hope seems lost. The hero, the crowd favorite, Pedro “The Shot-Caller” Dones, lies defeated in the center of a wrestling ring. The crowd lining the walls of the upstairs room of the Pulaski Club in Easthampton is hushed as...
Monte Belmonte Wines: Ruminating over wine knickknacks: How far we have fallen culturally when we have replaced Syrah with schwag
By Monte Belmonte For the Valley Advocate The somewhat suspect science that has told us for many years that “a little wine is good for you” seems to be going the way of leeching. When it comes to reliable medical advice, there has been some bad news for wine lovers....
Sessions
Check out our most recent performances in the playlist below, or click here to dig into interviews and related material!
Cannabis industry leaders gather at Hampshire College summit to widen appeal of plant
Community awareness sessions will need to happen in order to make the new adult-use cannabis industry accessible and accepted by everyone.
How to grow a creative community: Meet the eight artists selected for CitySpace’s 2025 Pay It Forward program
By SAM FERLAND Staff Writer CitySpace’s Pay It Forward Program offers performers funding to produce a show. But it is also building something greater that cannot be staged: a tight-knit artistic community. The Pay It Forward Program is in its fourth year, and will...
V-Spot: Has My Date Been Canceled?
“Cancel culture” has become such a beast in our social landscape that I struggle to even want to write this column at all, to be honest.
How high will you get from weed? Know thyself, not thy THC
By ROBIN GOLDSTEIN For the Advocate When you were studying for your driver’s license exam, you might have had to memorize the claim that a 12-ounce beer, a 5-ounce glass of wine, and a 1.5-ounce shot of tequila would each get you equally drunk. In the years since, you...
Brew Years Resolutions 2019 – Local brewers share their plans for the coming year
More than two dozen breweries opened in Massachusetts last year, and we should expect even more growth in 2019. If we see fewer brewery openings over time, it will be because craft beer fans have so many locally-loved businesses to buy from.
Stagestruck: The Land on Which We Dance
It’s become standard practice in the region’s theaters to offer a land acknowledgement before every performance. As Jacob’s Pillow’s artistic director Pamela Tatge says every night, “The land on which we dance is the ancestral homeland” of the Native peoples whose...
