‘Access to music is a human right’: Parlor Room Collective hosts workshops this fall to broaden access on and off the stage

By CAROLYN BROWN

This fall, the Parlor Room Collective is hosting workshops to make the music world more accessible to a broader range of people.One of them, a program called Uplifting Queer Voices, aims to help local LGBTQ and BIPOC musicians get performance...

Closer than Mumbai: Inaugural Bollywood film series comes to Greenfield Garden Cinemas every second Monday

By AMALIA WOMPA

Vidhi Salla, a radio host, author and journalist whose focus is on Indian cultural arts, is pioneering the introduction of Bollywood to New England theaters.Salla grew up in Mumbai and studied literature before moving to southern Vermont in 2018 to...

Arts Briefs: Visual art in Northampton and Amherst, farewell parties at the Majestic Saloon, and more

Benefit gallery showAs part of November’s Arts Night Out Northampton, The New England Visionary Artists Museum/Anchor House of Artists at 518 Pleasant St. will hold a benefit gallery show of works by the late Northampton artist Charlie Miller on...

Speaking of Nature: Dam it: The risks and perils that beavers face in the winter

By BILL DANIELSON

The American beaver (Castor canadensis) is one of those mammals that everyone has heard of. A humongous rodent capable of cutting down trees and damming up streams, the furry brown creature has been represented by plush toys and has long been a...

Rock for all: Whole Children’s resident Friendship Band to perform alongside indie rockers Yo La Tengo at 20th anniversary concert, The Bash, Oct. 23

By CAROLYN BROWN

The Northampton organization Whole Children, which serves people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, will celebrate its 20th anniversary with indie rock band Yo La Tengo at 33 Hawley on Wednesday, Oct. 23, at 6:30 p.m.At the event,...

Prepare to be transported back to your youth: Thornes is about to open an extensive arcade of vintage video games

By CAROLYN BROWN

An arcade near Boston will soon have a new location in Northampton.Hometown Arcade will open its third location in the basement of Thornes Marketplace this November, replacing what used to be Acme Surplus, though the exact opening date is yet to be...

Valley Bounty: Feeding fresh in our schools: Home Grown Springfield puts local produce into Springfield public schools

By LISA GOODRICH

As National Farm to School Month unfolds during October, the Connecticut River Valley puts the idea in action. Nationally observed since 2010, the month highlights the collaboration between farms and local schools.Simply feeding children is the root...

Let’s Talk Relationships: Building emotional intelligence for strong partnership, part 2

By AMY NEWSHORE

In my last column, I highlighted how emotional intelligence is a strong determinant of the success and flourishing of partnerships and marriages, as well as friendships, work and family relationships. Briefly, I defined emotional intelligence as...

Weekly Food Photo Contest: This week’s winner: Sabine Merz of Northampton

Yoshi, Sabine Merz’s beagle, admiring the challah from Woodstar.How to enter: Snap a pic of something delicious-looking and send it with your name, town and a sentence or two to features@gazettenet.com.

Step into a ‘Secret Garden’ full of monsters: Inside Monster Arts Project in Eastworks, ‘the fear factor is upstaged by fun’

By ALEXA LEWIS

Imaginary creatures large and small lurk among the leaves as visitors wander through the secret garden that has sprouted in Eastworks. Standing within the Monster Arts Project, it’s easy to forget that the mystical paintings, sculptures, oddities and...

Inside the witch house: Horror filmmaking couple Aaron Fradkin and Victoria Fratz Fradkin set their most recent, ‘Beezel,’ in Northampton

By JENNIFER LEVESQUE

It’s always spooky season when you have a love for horror movies, scary stories and a curiosity of anything dark and morbid. And fall accentuates that spooky feeling for everyone. Finding a new horror series or collection of movies from a director you...

Arts Briefs: UMass honors Max Roach, open auditions in Easthampton, and more

Max Roach Centennial Celebration The University of Massachusetts Amherst community will celebrate the centennial year of acclaimed bandleader, drummer, composer and activist Max Roach with a host of special events from Oct. 20 to 26.One particularly...

Speaking of Nature: An exceptional evening extravaganza: An entire yellow-rumped warbler flock threw a party on my deck

By BILL DANIELSON

I realize that I wrote a column on the yellow-rumped warbler just last week, but I had an encounter with this species that was as wonderful as it was unexpected. I very rarely feature a particular species in consecutive columns, but this was an...

What can you expect from a Cuddle Party? Conversations about consent happen before anything else

By MELISSA KAREN SANCES

As the sun sets over the Hidden Temple in Florence, 14 adults in their comfiest pajamas sprawl on a generous bed of quilts. Outside on this crisp October Saturday, the foliage is just starting to turn, its pops of color complementing the painted...

Valley Bounty: Plant medicine for the people: Local herbal company grows their own ingredients

By JACOB NELSON

Sometimes, medicine comes from a pill bottle. Other times, it grows right in your backyard, if only you knew how to access it.Blending modern chemistry with traditional wisdom, Blue Crow Botanicals puts locally grown herbal medicine right at people’s...

Only Human with Joan Axelrod-Contrada: Ear candy better than real candy: Exploring ways to divert sugar cravings

By JOAN AXELROD-CONTRADA

My sweet tooth has a sensory cousin: ear candy.And nothing tickles my ears when they’re screaming for delicious choruses and yummy hooks like the song “Sugar, Sugar” by The Archies, Billboard’s top hit of 1969. This feel-good alternative to songs of...

Get Growing with Mickey Rathbun: Appreciating the aster: The cheerful, abundant flowers will persist until hard frosts set in

By MICKEY RATHBUN

Many gardens go drab this time of year after summer flowers have faded away. But in fields and along roadsides, swaths of native asters add explosions of color to the transitioning landscape, with their golden centered, star-shaped flowers ranging...

Weekly Food Photo Contest: This week’s winner: Alison and Bruce Kriviskey of Easthampton

Alison and Bruce Kriviskey of Easthampton picked up this bounty from specialty shops and farm stands in and around the Valley “on one beautiful autumn Saturday.”How to enter: Snap a pic of something delicious-looking and send it with your name, town...

Illustrating a classic: Smith professor’s artworks featured in an exhibition honoring the centennial of Herman Melville’s ‘Billy Budd’

By CAROLYN BROWN

Barry Moser, an illustrator and professor of art at Smith College, has works featured in a New York City exhibition honoring the centennial of Herman Melville’s novel “Billy Budd.” Moser’s work will be shown as part of the “Melville’s Billy Budd at...

‘One sentence can change the course of a relationship’: Valley Players stage first full production, ‘Constellations,’ this weekend and next

By CAROLYN BROWN

Valley Players, a local volunteer theater group formed earlier this year, will perform their first full production in Amherst this weekend and next.The show, “Constellations,” by playwright Nick Payne, will be at Munson Memorial Library in Amherst...