The V-Spot with Yana Tallon-Hicks: My partners want to date each other
Hi Yana, I started dating my boyfriend Jules (they/them) in March of this year and we've been having a lovely time. They've been polyamorous for a while and we've agreed on a non-hierarchical relationship. It's been quite easy, and very dreamy to build a relationship...
Theater Matters with Jarice Hanson: Berkshires close an outstanding theatrical season: Signs of rich regional productions ahead
By Jarice Hanson For the Valley Advocate While the Berkshire Theatre Critics’ Association will be doling out the “Berkies” for outstanding performances and productions early next month, three of the major Berkshire theater anchors are concluding the 2025 summer season...
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...
Sessions
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O Cannabis: Pot and Pets, THC a No-No but CBD Shows Promise
While the humans, are away the pets will play, but if cannabis is in the house, it could be a health risk to your furry friends.
Living, breathing, label-free music: Etchings Festival is ‘the natural habitat for something that doesn’t fit any specific mold’
By CAROLYN BROWN Staff Writer Etchings Festival is all about showcasing original contemporary music in a way that transcends boundaries. It’s not exactly a classical festival, though its Ecce Ensemble is made of classical musicians. It’s not exactly a world festival,...
The V-Spot: We’re BOTH Healing From Trauma
I was hoping to start exploring partnered sex again, but my husband just isn’t mentally there.
He might be drunk, but he’ll make you laugh: Comedian Sam Morril brings his Class Act tour to town
By STEVE PFARRER Staff Writer Edgy. Sardonic and deadpan. Willing to joke about difficult subjects. Willing to joke about himself. As Sam Morril sees it, pretty much anything is fair game for comedy, at least as an antidote to the news and to life in general. “It’s a...
The Beerhunter: Progression Brewing Company opens in old Gleason’s Camping Supply space
Northampton has had a craft beer scene for decades now, and it’s grown a lot recently. But the city needed a place like Progression.
Stagestruck: Tropical Tolstoy
The title character in “Anna in the Tropics,” now playing at Barrington Stage Company, isn’t a person, but a book. And she plays a central role, thematically, narratively, even physically. The book is “Anna Karenina,” Leo Tolstoy’s winter’s tale of love – illicit, unrequited, doomed. The setting, though, in Nilo Cruz’s Pulitzer-winning play, is a Little Havana in 1920s Florida.
