Heavy metal meets mutual ownership at new Easthampton venue
By Sam Ferland For the Valley Advocate Most new businesses use scissors at ribbon cuttings to celebrate opening. When that business is a heavy metal music venue and bar combo, now open in the heart of Easthampton, it’s only fitting to use a sword instead. That...
The V-Spot: How do I tell my partner that I’m having an affair?
By Yana Tallon-Hicks For the Valley Advocate Dear Yana, I’m in a committed relationship with someone I care about deeply, and I’ve crossed a line I never thought I would — I’m having an affair. I love my partner and we have a real life together. And still, I’ve...
‘Keeping the music alive’: The Iron Horse launches ‘Playing It Forward’ capital campaign
By Carolyn Brown For the Valley Advocate Nearly two years after reopening its doors following significant renovations, The Iron Horse Music Hall has turned its attention to improving its financial stability and recently launched a capital campaign with a...
Spinning a new story: Greenfield residents to offer new sober space for music lovers with Turners Falls record store, cafe
By Erin-Leigh Hoffman For the Valley Advocate Greenfield residents Mark Schwaber and Ada Langford are spinning something new on Avenue A — a record store and cafe with a focus on community building around physical media in a sober and inclusive setting....
Revamped and revisited: Two older releases shine again in a brand new light
By Jennifer Levesque For the Valley Advocate Kaspar Hauser Live at Zone Art Center, Springfield, MA 4-24-1982 A few months ago I received a CD in the mail from Georgia. I ended up putting it aside for far too long. I already had a lineup of reviews to...
The ‘Avita’ adventure: UMass alums launch AI-powered language-learning app
By Carolyn Brown For the Valley Advocate Trips to South America helped a pair of lifelong best friends from Northampton realize a love of learning Spanish. Now, they’re turning that passion into an app to help other people learn the language and make connections. Reed...
‘I’ve found my people’: How a Northampton festival is building a creative home for youth
By Carolyn Brown For the Valley Advocate The Valley has several of performance opportunities for adults, but a local festival wants to instead turn the spotlight on young performers. The Youth Performance Festival (YPF) will return for its seventh year this week with...
A life in clay and laughter: Pelham potter Michael Cohen, 89, left a lasting legacy
By Carolyn Brown For the Valley Advocate Michael Cohen’s friends knew him for two things: making a life in pottery and being the life of the party. “He was very funny,” said Harriet Cohen, Michael’s ex-wife. “He could crack a joke … and he was much loved by everyone...
Finding a foothold: Folk singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist Diana Daniels to headline The Parlor Room
By CAROLYN BROWN For the Valley Advocate Last month, local folk singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Diana Daniels performed at the Parlor Room as part of First Night Northampton, an event in which she was one of more than 100 performers playing throughout...
Pulsing with intimacy, urgency: Heartbeat Theater launches its inaugural season with ‘Proof’ in Easthampton
By Melissa Karen Sances For the Valley Advocate Actor Kimberly Gaughan remembers taking her first step onto the stage. Technically, it was her mother’s aerobic step — it was the early ‘90s, after all — and its neon-pink-and-teal-striped surface beckoned her to rise....
Finding ‘the wow of now’: Amid neurological health battles, Northampton clown instructor embraces the power of presence
By CAROLYN BROWN For the Valley Advocate Fifteen years ago, Gabriel "Gabe" Levey’s life took a drastic turn when he had a seizure — his first of many. But rather than letting the diagnosis silence his career as a performer, the Northampton-based clowning instructor...
Sessions
Check out our most recent performances in the playlist below, or click here to dig into interviews and related material!
O Cannabis: Swapping bongs to benefit the Holyoke Creative Arts Center
“This is a way to get people together who are cannabis friendly people and now that we have this new law that we’re legal to use marijuana in this state, it just seemed to me to be just a cool event to put together,” Sherry said.
Heavy metal meets mutual ownership at new Easthampton venue
By Sam Ferland For the Valley Advocate Most new businesses use scissors at ribbon cuttings to celebrate opening. When that business is a heavy metal music venue and bar combo, now open in the heart of Easthampton, it’s only fitting to use a sword instead. That...
The V-Spot with Yana Tallon-Hicks: Am I Polysaturated or Polyinfatuated?
Dear Yana, As a polyamorous person who’s having much more success building new connections these days, I worry sometimes that I am dating from a feeling of not enoughness-ness, in a way that keeps me too focused on the new and the possible, and not enough with the...
Best Bites: Ordering off the kid’s menu: 9-year-old budding food critic shares his top 15 places to eat
By AZAI DUGGER and ROBIN GOLDSTEIN For the Advocate Note from Robin Goldstein: For this column, I asked my 9-year-old nephew and co-author Azai Dugger to choose his favorite restaurants and briefly describe each one — the same task as I undertook for my last Gazette...
Beerhunter: A conversation with the ‘bros’ keeping tabs on all of Massachusetts’ 200 breweries
It’ll probably be 201 by the time you finish reading.
Stagestruck: Becomings
In the Valley this weekend and next, there’s a show in which a man becomes a woman, one in which a man becomes a feminist, and a few more that feature (mostly) women who promise to become hilarious.
