‘You don’t look like a doctor’: Documentary film looks at the biases and challenges Black women physicians face
By STEVE PFARRER Staff Writer Dr. Khama Ennis had come a long way in her medical career. Until 2022, the Amherst resident had spent about two decades in emergency medicine, including a number of years as chief of emergency medicine at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in...
Stagestruck with Chris Rohmann: Curtain (or tent pole) Up! as summer theaters reopen
Sometimes in the course of the past year I despaired of ever again hearing that mantra of curtain speeches in the cyber-era: “Please silence your cellphones.” But in late June it happened, as three western Mass companies greeted live audiences with live performances,...
Righting past wrongs:
It’s a difficult conversation to bring up. It’s a public discourse that some have devoted a large portion of their lives trying to initiate in order to bring about societal change. It’s a conversation that is hundreds of years old. It’s about the 400-year history of...
The V-Spot with Yana Tallon-Hicks: Can I call myself bisexual?
Dear Yana, I happen to be a bisexual person who found out in high school, and yet I haven’t done anything with other men yet. Could I still call myself bisexual even though I haven’t had sex with men?Thanks, By Bi Guy Dear Bi Guy,As I understand it, sexuality can be...
Monte Bellmonte Wines: Ken Washburn, Wine Spectator: How a Level II Sommelier lost wine and found themself
Why does wine give some people headaches? A commonly sighted cause is a plant chemical found in grape skins called tannins. But tannins are also found in things like tea. Others site sulfites. Sulfur is a naturally occurring element, and while sulfur is sometimes...
Trailblazers: The first Black-owned marijuana cultivation center on the East Coast has set up shop in Cummington
The first Black-owned cannabis cultivation center on the East Coast is, remarkably, located in the tiny hilltown of Cummington — with a population of 875, mostly white, residents.That fact didn’t dissuade Reginald Stanfield from selecting the community in northwest...
Stagestruck: Earnest and Chester
Last week, Barrington Stage Company’s Julianne Boyd greeted the audience for her troupe’s opening production, staged in a socially distanced tent at the edge of Pittsfield, with these long-awaited words: “I want to welcome you to live theater.” This week, introducing the season’s second show, in the company’s downtown mainstage, she added: “… in a real theater!”
Stagestruck: And We’re Back!
Sometimes in the course of the past year I despaired of ever again hearing that mantra of curtain speeches in the cyber-era: “Please silence your cell phones” – or of hearing the words spoken by Julianne Boyd on Barrington Stage Company’s opening night: “I want to welcome you to live theater!” Last week it happened, as two Western Mass companies greeted live audiences with live performances.
Stagestruck: Through the Portal
Down a pebbled path flanked by tall grasses in an orchard hung with ripening fruit, we come to an archway fashioned of bent branches: The Portal. There, our Guides invite us to hang a slip of paper on which we’ve written something we wish to leave behind, after the cruel year we’ve just been through. (I write “Zoom.”)
Itching for some theater, music? Here’s some ideas
It’s been a long year, but how’s this for a bit of uplifting news – shows are coming back, albeit slowly at first. Here is a roundup of some of the in-person and virtual events starting in May. Music Sunday, May 2 Karrin Allyson, Marty Jaffe and Valley Jazz Voices, 4...
A weed newbie?: Recreational marijuana is here to stay, but where should you start? A playbook for beginners
OK, so you’re new to this marijuana thing. You’ve driven by one — or two or three — dispensaries that are popping up like Pez dispensers in communities up and down the Pioneer Valley. You’re curious. You’ve got some stimulus money. Odds are you’re on the “older” side,...
Sessions
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Kimaya Diggs on the Valley Advocate Sessions stage
Folk and soulful jazz with pull-on-your-heartstrings melodies
The V-Spot: SOS! I’m Spaced Out During Sex
I’m a 19-year-old guy in a hetero relationship. I was pleasuring my partner last night and I realized I stopped being present and could not become present again. She picked up on it and, well, I really wanted to be present for it but I seemed to be stuck in my head, which didn’t make her feel good and wanted.
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Cinemadope: Northampton Rafiki screening shows LGBTQ pride at home and abroad
Showing May 18 at the Academy of Music











