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By STEVE PFARRER

War has been a regular horror in Lebanon for nearly half a century, flaring most recently this fall with Israel’s invasion of southern Lebanon in attacks against the Iranian-backed paramilitary group Hezbollah, a spillover in turn from the brutal,...

By STEVE PFARRER

In 2016, David Daley published his first book, “Ratf**ked,” an eye-opening account of how numerous Republican-dominated states, beginning in 2010, had dramatically redrawn their voting districts to lock in control of state legislatures and U.S. House...

By STEVE PFARRER

In the early 1990s, I answered an ad for a reporting job at the Gazette. I had editorial experience — I’d worked as a copywriter, a copy editor, and a proofreader — and I liked writing, but I’d never worked for a newspaper, unless you counted a few...

By STEVE PFARRER

Pickett’s DreamBy Christopher CarlisleAustin Macauley PublishersChristopher Carlisle, at one time the Episcopal chaplain for the University of Massachusetts Amherst, later co-founded Cathedral in the Night, a Christian outdoor service and community in...

By STEVE PFARRER

When folk rockers Eavesdrop and singer-songwriter Grayson Ty come to the Iron Horse on June 28, the fellow Valley artists won’t just be sharing the bill: They’ll be celebrating a reunion of sorts, looking back to the night a little over eight years...

By STEVE PFARRER

After generating some local news in 2022 when scenes were filmed in a number of locations around the Valley, “Janet Planet,” the debut film by celebrated playwright Annie Baker, is set to make its debut in Amherst and Greenfield on June 27.The movie,...

By STEVE PFARRER

Fresh on the heels of Django in June, Northampton’s annual celebration of jazz manouche and Django Reinhardt, Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares has organized its own summer jazz series for July, both to say “thank you” to supporters and to give local...

By STEVE PFARRER

SandwichBy Catherine NewmanHarperCollins In late 2022, Amherst writer Catherine Newman released her first adult novel, “We All Want Impossible Things,” after previously publishing a number of nonfiction titles, a middle grade novel, and quite a bit of...

By STEVE PFARRER

Sojourner Truth has long been a symbol of a strong Black woman: a straight-talking, formerly enslaved woman who remade herself as an ardent abolitionist and women’s rights activist, a preacher, and a riveting speaker who wowed audiences with her wit...

By STEVE PFARRER

Among a number of very good lines in “Ezra,” a film about the challenge of raising an autistic child, there’s one that really encapsulates the problems parents and caretakers can face.Bobby Cannavale plays Max Bernal, a struggling comedian with his...

By STEVE PFARRER

It was 20 years ago today … Well, maybe not exactly to the day, but Django in June, the annual Northampton celebration of the music created by the legendary Belgian-French guitarist Django Reinhardt, is marking its 20th anniversary this year.That’s no...

By STEVE PFARRER

At some point in our lives, most of us have the misfortune to have someone come to our home who quickly wears out their welcome, for dinner or a party or maybe a weekend visit: an obnoxious uncle, your daughter’s new boyfriend, a neighbor’s work...

By STEVE PFARRER

Summer brings outdoor music as well as any number of artistic performances, including theater, literary readings, dances and more.And it’s not just big blowout events like the Green River Festival.In Hadley, the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum has...

By STEVE PFARRER

When Stan Sherer was growing up in the Bronx in New York City in the 1950s, an uncle paid a visit to his family one day and brought along some World War II-era darkroom equipment.Sherer didn’t know it just then, but he was about to find his life’s...

By STEVE PFARRER

Time was when summer theater in the Valley was typically produced by a number of mainstays, including Chester Theatre Company, New Century Theatre, and the Ko Festival at Amherst College.But New Century Theatre shut down a few years ago, as did the Ko...

By STEVE PFARRER

When he was growing up, John Anz knew that his father, Johnny Anz, played piano and sang. But he didn’t know much about his dad’s musical background, especially as Johnny Anz died when his son was just 7 years old.But a little over 50 years later,...

By STEVE PFARRER

Crossing the snowy wastes of Alaska in deep winter, when the temperature is plunging past 40 below zero, might not be everybody’s cup of tea.But for Marla BB, it was a little bit of paradise — a three-week sojourn with her own Alaskan sled dogs,...

By STEVE PFARRER

Over the past few years, Tony Trischka, considered one of the most influential banjo players around, has been delving deep into the music of another banjo master: the late Earl Scruggs.Scruggs, in the 1940s, developed a unique three-finger style of...

By STEVE PFARRER

If you go to a milonga, or social dance, to do tango dancing in Buenos Aires, you’ll likely be doing it to live music.In western Massachusetts? No so much.Now, though, Western Mass Tango, which has hosted tango lessons and dances in the region for...

By STEVE PFARRER

Journeys of Voices & ChoicesBy Ernie BrillHuman Error PublishingNorthampton poet Ernie Brill, a former English teacher at Northampton High School, is a longtime writer who has worked with many small presses over the years. A consistent theme of his...

By STEVE PFARRER

Growing up in New York City, Katy Schneider recalls that the New York Times was pretty much sacrosanct in her home. Her late parents read the paper closely, her father often cutting out articles he particularly liked, and both referred to the...