Arts & Life
Longtime Eric Carle Museum director Alexandra Kennedy stepping down this year
By STEVE PFARRER
AMHERST — After almost 15 years leading the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Executive Director Alexandra Kennedy plans to step down from her post this year.But Kennedy, known at the Carle as Alix, says she hopes to stay engaged with the museum...
Race Street Live venture ends: Gateway City Arts to resume booking bands for large performance space after DSP Shows ends lease
By STEVE PFARRER
In late 2020, Valley music fans were disheartened to hear that Gateway City Arts, the multi-arts venue in Holyoke, was shutting it doors because of lost business during the first year of the pandemic.But the outlook brightened in April 2021, when...
Of regicides and kings: A bestselling British novelist examines a chapter of Valley history
By STEVE PFARRER
Robert Harris is the author of a slew of bestselling thrillers and historical novels, covering ancient Rome, World War II, contemporary politics and more. According to one count, he’s sold over 10 million copies of his books, a number of which have...
Not too late to start: Late-blooming Amherst writer wins top prize in long-standing sci-fi/fantasy fiction contest
By STEVE PFARRER
As Marianne Xenos sees it, you’re never too old to find new ways to be creative.Xenos, of Amherst, is a longtime visual artist who also received a degree in literature years ago and wrote poetry and short literary fiction for a time. But that writing...
Arts Briefs: History talk in Amherst, jazz in Easthampton, poetry in Northampton, and more
By STEVE PFARRER
Revisiting the pastAMHERST — The monthly Song & Story Swap, sponsored by the Pioneer Valley Folklore Society of western Massachusetts, will feature storyteller and historical re-enactor Dennis Picard in a hybrid event Jan. 7 at 7 p.m.The in-person...
Valley veteran theater critic Chris Rohmann takes a bow
By EMILY THURLOW
For the better part of the last 36 years, all the world’s been a stage for Chris Rohmann. The Advocate’s longtime theater critic has had a front seat view to thousands of plays in the Valley. With that seat, he has penned his perspective on...
Feeling her Irish: Performance piece examines the connection between Emily Dickinson and her Irish maid Margaret Maher
By STEVE PFARRER
It might seem that every conceivable angle of studying Emily Dickinson has been covered, and in just about every format: biographies, academic studies, poetry analysis, novels, movies, even TV shows.Yet the famed Amherst poet always seems to inspire a...
40 years of making music: The Young@Heart Chorus celebrates a milestone
By STEVE PFARRER
Back in 1982, when he first started leading a singing group of elderly residents in the Walter Salvo House in Northampton, Bob Cilman wasn’t sure if this new venture was going to fly.“I couldn’t imagine it lasting more than two weeks,” he says with a...
Sylvia Plath at 90: Smith College forum examines famous poet in wake of new biography
By STEVE PFARRER
Almost a century after she was born, Sylvia Plath is still winning admirers.The famous poet and Smith College graduate, who took her life in 1963 and was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize, has been the subject of a huge number of books and...
Spinning the classics: Young jazz archivist Matthew Rivera will play vintage 78rpm records at the Northampton Jazz Festival
By STEVE PFARRER
Growing up in Louisville, Kentucky, Matthew “Fat Cat” Rivera didn’t hear a whole lot of jazz. But what he did hear began to pique his interest.By the time he was in high school, Rivera says, jazz had become “an obsession,” and in college he was...
The Beat Goes On: Melody Gardot in smoky jazz duo; a hot slate at the Drake, and more
By STEVE PFARRER
In the musical world, it’s now a classic comeback story: how jazz singer Melody Gardot, then 19 years old, was struck by a car while bicycling in her native Philadelphia in 2003 and suffered serious head and spinal injuries, a broken pelvis, and...
An artistic evolution: Valley artists land grants for their work
By REBECA PEREIRA
Four generations of Deerfield fruit farmers have stewarded the land at Clarkdale Fruit Farms for more than a century, harvesting an heirloom apple variety that measures just around 1 inch in diameter, a bite-sized Lady apple most popular among the...
Celebrating a milestone: Double Edge Theatre marks 40 years of innovative productions with new programming
By STEVE PFARRER
Back in 1982, a new feminist ensemble called Double Edge Theatre formed in Boston and presented its first production: “RITES,” an adaptation of the ancient Greek tragedy “The Bacchae” by Euripides, with this modern version set in a women’s public...
The Beat Goes On: Todd Snider, the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, Aimee Man, Bill and the Belles, and more
By STEVE PFARRER
Todd Snider has been through a number of changes since he burst on the national music scene in 1994 with his debut album, “Songs for the Daily Planet,” a roots-rock record on which the singer-songwriter first unveiled his penchant for biting satire as...
Small is beautiful: Holyoke gallery features mail art from across the country and overseas
By STEVE PFARRER
Mail art, as Dean Brown explains, became a big deal in the late 1960s and the 1970s, a populist movement based on sending small-scale artworks — drawings, paintings, graphic designs and more — through the Postal Service.Over the past couple of...
Laughter as therapy: In new video, performance artist Sally Greenhouse recounts the aftermath of breaking her neck
By STEVE PFARRER
In the 1990s, Sally Greenhouse had a regular gig on Northampton Community Television (now Northampton Open Media, or NOM) with her show “The Greenhouse Effect,” a combination of performance art, monologue and comedy in which the multidisciplinary...
30 years of crime solving: Archer Mayor unveils his 30th Joe Gunther novel
By STEVE PFARRER
Vermont: a land of rolling hills and valleys marked by picturesque farms, stunning fall foliage, skiing and maple syrup. Where healthy, vibrant people enjoy a variety of outdoor recreation, and pastoral beauty and quiet deliver peace of mind.That’s...
Remembering David Berman: Late singer-songwriter and poet had key ties to the Valley
By STEVE PFARRER
For a long time, he was unsure of his singing voice, wondering if it was really good enough to front a band. And for a good part of the time he was making albums, he also shunned most live performances, not feeling he could sing in front of an...
What they did on their summer vacation: At the Great Books program at Amherst College, reading is a joy, not a chore
By Steve Pfarrer
At first glance, it looked like a scene from a typical day at Amherst College: about 100 students sat in a lecture hall, on tiered seating on three sides of the room, notebooks and digital devices like iPads at hand, while a professor stood in the...
Extraordinary Paintings of Ordinary Gals: The pioneering work of Isabel Bishop
By STEVE PFARRER
In the early 1900s, few young American women were allowed to go about unchaperoned. Fewer still would likely have been permitted to attend college on their own, almost 500 miles from home, and at the tender age of 16.But the painter and printmaker...
