‘Barbara Forever’ screening
Amherst Cinema will host a screening of Brydie O’Connor’s movie “Barbara Forever,” about pioneering lesbian filmmaker Barbara Hammer, on Thursday, Nov. 12, at 7 p.m. O’Connor will take part in a post-film discussion with editor Matt Hixon and producer Elijah Stevens.
Per the event listing, “Through the course of the film, Barbara shows us that the personal is not only political, the personal is historical. Looking to Barbara as one of the first filmmakers to put a lesbian life on screen that wasn’t there before, her work becomes a blueprint for a new generation of queer and radical artists to write our own histories into existence. This exploration of both Barbara Hammer’s life, work, archive and her ongoing legacy provides an urgent, necessary story of queer life, feminist history and avant-garde cinema.”
Admission is free to Amherst Cinema members, $13.25 for adults and $12.25 for students and seniors, fees included. Tickets are available at the cinema or at amherstcinema.org.
New ‘Hamlet’ adaptation
The Play Incubation Collective (PIC) will host its final reading of the year at The Workroom at 33 Hawley in Northampton on Sunday, Nov. 15, at 7:30 p.m.
The show, Maizy Broderick Scarpa’s “The Opheliet Project,” is about a trio of friends who reunite to perform in a version of “Hamlet. “But after deciding on a whim to reassign Hamlet’s soliloquies to Ophelia, the compulsion to question the status quo overflows past rehearsals, challenging not just how they view Shakespeare’s masterpiece but also their friendship and the theater company that brought them all together,” according to the event listing.
The cast includes Xinef Afriam, Francesca Hansen-DiBello and Adriana Piantedosi.
This play was developed as part of The Incubation Residency, in which a playwright can develop a work over nine months with help from PIC, culminating in a public reading.
Tickets are $12 general admission, but subsidized tickets are also available for those who need them. To purchase tickets, visit playincubation.org/the-opheliet-project; otherwise, they are available at the door by cash or check only.
Grammy-nominated musician in Northampton
Aaron Lee Tasjan, a Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter, will perform at the Parlor Room in Northampton on Sunday, Nov. 15, at 7:30 p.m.
A news release described Tasjan as “a seasoned performer, bringing palpable energy, authenticity and his contagious love for music that radiates throughout the room.” His most recent album, “Get Over It, Underdog,” came out in July. More recently, he released the single “Good Luck Now!,” which was co-written with Kim Richie and Chuck Prophet.
Madeleine Kelson will open.
Tickets are $30, including fees, via ironhorse.org.
Argentine electroacoustic music in Florence
Argentine musician and composer Facundo Salgado will bring his electroacoustic music project Rumbo Tumba to Bombyx Center for Arts & Equity on Saturday, Nov. 14, at 8 p.m.
Salgado is “a craftsman of organic loops, a one-man band – performing, recording and mixing a variety of handcrafted South American instruments in real time,” according to a news release for the event.
Tickets are $32.70 to $42.70 via bombyx.live.
Concert featuring works by LGBTQ+ composers
The Da Camera Singers will present a concert called “Hear Our Voices: We’ve Always Been Here,” a concert featuring only works by LGBTQ+ composers at Helen Hills Chapel on Friday, Nov. 13, at 7:30 p.m. and at Trinity Church in Shelburne Falls on Sunday, Nov. 15, at 3 p.m.
The concert will include music by George Frederic Handel, Piotr Ilych Tchaikovsky, Camille Saint-Saëns, Francis Poulenc, Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland, Florence Price, Cole Porter, Stephen Sondheim, Craig Hella Johnson, Stephen Flaherty and Mari Esebel Valverde.
Local singer-songwriter Justina Golden will be the featured guest artist.
“We want to be sure people understand that many of the composers we all revere and whose music we have enjoyed are part of this community,” conductor Sheila Heffernon wrote in an email. “It concerns us that the voices of many LGTBQ+ people are being silenced, so we are lifting them up and celebrating them.”
Concerts are free and open to the public. For more information about the Da Camera Singers, visit dacamerasingers.org.
“The Drag Parade” at 33 Hawley
Stanley Coochie, a self-described “local drag thing,” will host “The Drag Parade,” an event honoring the 20th anniversary of My Chemical Romance’s celebrated album “The Black Parade” at 33 Hawley in Northampton on Friday, Nov. 13, at 8:15 p.m.
There will be a preshow at 7:45 with covers of My Chemical Romance played on the harp by Selkie Strings. The show will feature drag performers Gaybo the Clown, Frank N Stein, Venus Penis, Mx N Heat, Giggle Bytes, Anhedonia, Zale Twisted, Mazzy Chism, Hellena, Lady Zaza and Point Dykester.
Tickets are a suggested donation of $15 to $20, sliding scale, via bit.ly/dragparade. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
