Grappling with how society responds to disability: Rock-and-roll musical comedy ‘Tallywacker’ filmed in Northampton, Easthampton and Greenfield
By Melissa Karen Sances For the Valley Advocate The black-and-white buddy comedy “Tallywacker” opens on Aleister, its star, a young man with brittle bone disease sitting in a wheelchair in downtown Northampton. Locals will recognize the actor as Jeremy Dubs, who is a...
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....
Theater Matters with Jarice Hanson: Breathing fresh life into ‘old chestnuts’: Classics made new (but not too new)
By Jarice Hanson For the Valley Advocate One of the most common terms in theater parlance is the “old chestnut.” This is a type of show that has been around a long time and often has themes, music, or values that are guaranteed to encourage potential audiences to...
Mixtape: Three psychedelic trips to ease your musical soul: New releases from locals: Gold Dust, Princess Ghoul and Bunnies
By Jennifer Levesque For the Valley Advocate Gold Dust, “In the Shade of the Living Light" Gold Dust originated as a solo project for Stephen Pierce, a local punk musician who wanted to step outside of that genre and into traditional folk and psychedelia. After...
Before Salem, there was Springfield: New exhibit explores ‘Witch Panic’ in mid-1600s western Mass
By Emilee Klein Staff Writer Around 50 years before the infamous Salem witch trials, fear of witches first plagued the colonial people of western Massachusetts. In the enterprising settlement of Springfield, founder and fur trader William Pynchon and his colleague,...
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...
Sessions
Check out our most recent performances in the playlist below, or click here to dig into interviews and related material!
Too High to Drive? New App Allows Marijuana Users to Test Their Impairment Level
Getting beyond “I think I’m OK.”
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,...
V-Spot: Is He Cheating By Watching Porn?
Why does he feel he can look at this porn but not have sex with me and feel this is OK?
Podcast: Beerhunter Hunter Styles and Beer Week co-founder Sally Noble talk beer
We have an embarrassment of riches of beer in the Valley.
Stagestruck: Bodies of Evidence
Social/political themes are abundantly present in “The Equality of Night and Day,” a world-premiere work at Jacob’s Pillow from the Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE dance company.
