Arcadian sounds
Though summer is prime time for outdoor music festivals, early fall can work, too. Given the forecast looks good for this weekend, the timing seems perfect for the Arcadia Folk Festival on Saturday, Sept. 28.
Now in its second year, the festival, held at Mass Audubon’s Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary in Easthampton, is produced by Signature Sounds, the Northampton record and music production company. The all-day show (10 a.m. to 6 p.m.) is designed both as a showcase of leading acoustic groups and artists and a celebration of the Arcadia Sanctuary, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary of protecting area woodlands, wetlands and wildlife.
Among the artists playing on two separate stages will be an old Valley favorite (and former resident), Dar Williams, and another hometown hero, Martin Sexton. Then there’s Anais Mitchell (pictured above), the Vermont native and singer-songwriter who developed her album 2010 “Hadestown” into an award-winning musical of the same name. Earlier this year, “Hadestown” won multiple Tony Awards (and other honors), including for best musical; Mitchell, now living in New York City, snagged the Tony for best original score.
Rounding out the lineup are folk-rockers The Mammals and five other groups and artists, including kids’ favorite Little Roots. A number of food and beverage vendors will be on site, too, so you won’t go hungry or thirsty. Tickets are $49.99; kids 10 and under are free. Visit signaturesoundspresents.com for more information and links to buying tickets.
Fighting for peace during wartime
If you have an even cursory understanding of the history of the Vietnam War, you know the conflict sparked huge antiwar protests in the U.S. in the late 1960s and early 1970s. But it might be less generally known that a significant part of that movement was made up of U.S. soldiers and veterans who came to oppose the war.
That story is part of “Waging Peace in Vietnam,” a traveling exhibit that just opened at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, on the ground floor lobby of the Integrative Learning Center. The exhibit, which will be on display through Oct. 11, includes large panels that document antiwar resistance during the era with photos, underground newspapers, and other period documents.
As exhibit notes put it, it’s “time to set the record straight” when it comes to the antiwar movement: how it wasn’t the sole province of student radicals but also came from “antiwar coffeehouses springing up outside military bases,” “GI newspapers giving an independent voice to active soldiers,” and “stockade revolts and strikes and near-mutinies on naval vessels and in the air force.”
The exhibit is supplemented by other events, including the launch today (Friday, Sept. 27) of an accompanying book at 4:30 p.m. in Room N151 of the Learning Center, followed by a panel discussion with Ron Carver, exhibit curator and co-editor of the accompanying book; writer and Vietnam veteran W.D. Ehrhart; Susan Schnall, a Navy nurse who was court-martialed for her antiwar activism; and UMass history professor Christian Appy, who’s written a number of books about the war.
Other events include the screening of “Why We Fight,” a 2005 documentary by Eugene Jarecki, on Wednesday, Oct. 2, and “Combat Obscura,” the 2018 documentary by Miles Lagoze about marines in Afghanistan, on Friday, Oct. 11. Both films will be shown at 7 p.m. in Room W245 in South College; the screening of “Combat Obscura” will be followed by a Q & A with the director.
For additional information, visit wagingpeaceinvietnam.com.
— Steve Pfarrer