New dispensary brings unique outlet model: Oz Club is Easthampton’s fifth cannabis shop
By Sam Ferland For the Valley Advocate The Oz (pronounced ounce) Club is the newest cannabis dispensary in Easthampton, a new branch from two owners who are already familiar with the cannabis industry. The dispensary located at 17 East St. not far from Route 5 has...
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!
O Cannabis: From stigmatized weed pipe maker to artisanal marijuana glass blower
“They expected me to go to college and get a real job,” he said. “Dad always said, ‘The last thing I expected to have was an artist as a son.’”
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 with Yana Tallon-Hicks: How do I tell my girlfriend that I’m bisexual?
Hello Yana! I’m curious about my sexuality. I have, for the majority of my life, thought I was a heterosexual male. But at times I have thought maybe I am bisexual. I’m aware that sexuality is a spectrum. I just don’t know where I land on that spectrum. I have a...
‘Creole love call’: Gombo launches new music series starting Feb. 2 with jazz reedman Evan Arntzen
By STEVE PFARRER Staff Writer When John Piskor opened his Cajun-style restaurant, Gombo Nola Kitchen & Oyster Bar, in Northampton last year, he said he eventually wanted it to turn it into something akin to a New Orleans cafe, where people come out for a drink and...
The Beerhunter: Caleb Hiliadis Takes the Lead at Amherst Brewing
When Amherst Brewing Company opened it doors in 1997, Caleb Hiliadis was just five years old. Now, at 27, he’s running the joint.
Stagestruck: Fall Harvest – a cornucopia of theater, music & dance
Next month on area stages (and a screen), three shows that place women front and center, bucking prejudice, expectations, even labels. Plus, a musical farce featuring a woman with a goatee.
