Arts & Life

Pinball revival: City brewery new local hub for vintage arcade game’s return to the spotlight

02-14-2025 8:57 PM

By SAMUEL GELINAS

NORTHAMPTON — “It’s back. It’s back in a big way,” says Jamie Fleming, enthusing over the swelling popularity of pinball at Progression Brewery’s monthly pinball tournament — a competition that started underground in Fleming’s basement and has found a new home above ground as the vintage arcade games trend toward a revival.


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New website will document life of Lucy Terry Prince, the earliest identified African American writer

02-14-2025 9:03 PM

By CHRIS LARABEE

DEERFIELD — The Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association has begun a multiyear effort to bring to life a project exploring the experiences of Lucy Terry Prince, the earliest identified African American writer. The work began last Saturday on the first day of Black History Month.


Planting hope in the garden: Artist Carrie Mae Weems, who named a peony for W.E.B. Du Bois, dreamed of a memorial garden

02-14-2025 8:59 PM

By LORETTA YARLOW

In 2013, the widely acclaimed artist Carrie Mae Weems — a charismatic artist, activist and educator, known for installations, videos and photographs that invite the viewer to reflect on issues of race, gender and class — was among 10 artists commissioned to participate in “Du Bois in Our Time,” an exhibition I curated when I was director of the University Museum of Contemporary Art at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.


‘If you can hit one note and hit it hard’: Western Mass Sacred Harp singers ready for biggest annual event

02-14-2025 8:57 PM

By CAROLYN BROWN

On Saturday, March 8, and Sunday, March 9, the Western Massachusetts Sacred Harp Community (WMSHC) will host their biggest annual event, the Western Massachusetts Sacred Harp Convention, at Bombyx Center for Arts & Equity in Florence from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.


Richard McCarthy: AI’s answer about power is ‘it depends’

02-07-2025 9:09 PM

By RICHARD MCCARTHY

In 2023, working with Mathew Berube, head of Information Services at the Jones Library in Amherst, several of my old columns were fed into ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence chatbot. AI produced a lengthy analysis of my writing. Then I wrote a new column, which we did not show AI, and Mathew asked AI to write on the same subject as the new column, in my writing style.


The future is bright and weightless: An eye-opening exploration of everything and nothing at a spa in Easthampton

02-07-2025 9:09 PM

By BOB FLAHERTY

My journey. Where it begins and ends I have no idea. I do know that I could use some healing along the way, I’m just not sure what it is I have. Although, yes, I am acutely aware of my mousetrap nervous system and my constantly yap-yap-yapping mind.


Old school exposure: Vintage photo booth has lasting allure at Thornes Marketplace, but maintaining it is a chore

02-07-2025 9:09 PM

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

On the second floor of Thornes Marketplace stands what was once a common occurrence in malls across America, but like malls is fading into obscurity with the advent of the digital age.


‘The road to hell starts with good intentions’: New opera tells the story of Northampton’s notorious revivalist preacher, Jonathan Edwards

01-30-2025 7:22 PM

By CAROLYN BROWN

Jonathan Edwards, one of Northampton’s most famous residents, was a revolutionary preacher whose legacy has endured through centuries. He was the first minister in Northampton to baptize African Americans, yet he did not free those he enslaved. He was a loving husband, yet he supported complementarianism, a theological belief that gender roles are ordained by God. And his work inspired several suicides.


Book detailing ‘Hands Across the Hills’ initiative to be formally released on Saturday in Leverett

01-30-2025 7:22 PM

By SCOTT MERZBACH

LEVERETT — A project featuring events and dialogues bringing together western Massachusetts progressives and residents with more conservative views from eastern Kentucky, gaining both national and international attention over the course of seven years, is being chronicled in a new book.


Earth Matters: Exploring the behaviors of wintering birds: Adaptations ensure survival in freezing temperatures

01-30-2025 7:22 PM

By TOM LITWIN

During migration season this past fall, researchers at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, using Nexrad weather radar, tracked approximately 4 billion birds migrating from Canada into the U.S. and 4.7 million birds leaving the U.S. for the tropics. Clearly one strategy for dealing with New England weather is to leave it behind. But other species’ strategies have traded the benefits and perils posed by thousands of miles of travel for the benefits and perils of northern winters.


Valley Bounty: For the love of chocolate: Richardson’s Candy Kitchen maintains sweet relationships in a farming community

01-30-2025 7:17 PM

By LISA GOODRICH

Richardson’s Candy Kitchen in Deerfield celebrated its 70th anniversary last year. The Woodward family has operated the business since 1983, when they took over where the Richardsons left off. Owner Kathie Williams (née Woodward), grew up in the business, which has always had strong ties with the local farming community.


Bluegrass lovers, rejoice: Monthly CitySpace Bluegrass jam session starts Feb. 1

01-30-2025 7:16 PM

By CAROLYN BROWN

Bluegrass music (like this reporter) is native to the American South, but starting this week, it’ll have a new home here in the Valley.


Get Growing with Mickey Rathbun: How Emily’s flowers grew year-round: A brief history of indoor gardens

01-24-2025 9:04 PM

By MICKEY RATHBUN

Although Emily Dickinson is now considered one of America’s greatest poets, during her lifetime she was better known for her horticultural skills, as Dickinson scholar Judith Farr has observed. From a young age Dickinson was fascinated by the natural world. She enjoyed helping her mother in the gardens that she kept both at the Dickinson Homestead and the house the Dickinson family lived in for several years on North Pleasant Street where Ren’s Mobil Station now stands. During her year at Mary Lyon’s Female Seminary (1847-48), now Mount Holyoke College, she studied botany and made an extensive herbarium, a collection of pressed flowers and plants from the local area, that eventually contained more than 400 specimens. A family friend is said to have commented, “Emily had an uncanny knack of making even the frailest growing things flourish.”


Earth Matters: From horses to martins: 15 years of the Fort River Refuge

01-24-2025 9:04 PM

By JOSHUA ROSE

Once upon a time, it was called Bri-Mar Stables and described as “a quaint equestrian facility nestled in the heart of Hadley … providing a welcoming environment for those passionate about all things equine.” The property had a barn at the top of a hill on Moody Bridge Road and a track for riding out back near the Fort River.


Looking into the depth: Works by the late artist Daniel Feldman to be exhibited at Gallery A3 in Amherst

01-24-2025 8:59 PM

By CAROLYN BROWN

The late artist Daniel Feldman died in November at the age of 67, a few months before an exhibition of 14 of his works at Gallery A3 in Amherst was slated to open.


Only Human with Joan Axelrod-Contrada: It all comes out in the wash: The washer-dryer combo is the perfect metaphor for life

01-16-2025 7:50 PM

By JOAN AXELROD-CONTRADA

Life is like a washing machine – complete with cycles and plenty of agitating to get at the messy stuff. If I were a songwriter (spoiler alert: I’m not), I’d pen a catchy tune about that simile, weaving together verses and a killer refrain set to the hum of a real washing machine.


Arts Briefs: ‘Rent’ actors in Amherst, Grunge Brunch at Iron Horse, and more

01-16-2025 7:50 PM

Rentheads, rejoice! Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp (who played Roger and Mark, respectively, in the movie adaptation of the Broadway musical) will perform together at the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Bowker Auditorium on Friday, Jan. 31, at 8 p.m.


‘Not your mama’s ‘Newsies’’: Amherst Community Theater production updates the musical with women and nonbinary characters

01-16-2025 7:48 PM

By CAROLYN BROWN

Fans of the Disney musical “Newsies” generally know the titular group of characters as boys, but a local theater company’s upcoming production is expanding the show to include female and nonbinary characters.


Around and About with Richard McCarthy: Twilight in a side yard: Imagining a shared moment between two people

01-09-2025 9:24 PM

By RICHARD MCCARTHY

I was biking in the countryside of Montague one summer day (remember those?), and I pedaled past a house with a substantial side yard furnished only with a small table and two simple chairs. Later, when I was home, I watched the sunset from my back porch, and found myself envisioning two people sitting at that side yard table in the twilight.


Love is in the airwaves: Queer dating radio show creates connections and community

01-09-2025 9:24 PM

By CAROLYN BROWN

Finding love is all about finding someone on your wavelength. A radio show at the University of Massachusetts Amherst wants to help the local queer community make romantic connections, one guest DJ at a time.



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