Arts & Life
The cost of addiction: New novel draws on Valley backdrop to explore how substance use upends people’s lives
By STEVE PFARRER
Several years ago, Mattea Kramer, an Amherst writer and researcher who’s studied and written about the federal budget as well as drug policies at state and federal levels, spent time interviewing a number of women in the Greenfield jail who were part of a recovery program for substance use.
Young filmmaker makes his debut: 16-year-old director and writer to screen his film at Greenfield Garden Cinemas
By CHRIS LARABEE
The Greenfield Garden Cinemas is rolling out a red-carpet premiere of its own on April 16, as it welcomes the public to a free screening of a locally-produced short film with a question-and-answer session to follow.
Sharing the beauty and practicality of seed saving: Hope’s Seed Library at GCC kicks off 10th year
By EVELINE MACDOUGALL
What can you get at a local library that you aren’t required to return? The answer can be found at Greenfield Community College. Now in its 10th year, their seed library has a new logo and new name honoring longtime librarian Hope Schneider, now retired, who helped launch the college library’s program in 2015. Hope’s Seed Library now contains expanded offerings, including seeds collected from GCC gardens. While library patrons aren’t required to return seeds, growers are encouraged to consider bringing seeds saved from resulting plants, thereby helping the program to thrive.
‘Young creatives making magic in the forest’: Emerson students shoot Bigfoot film on alum’s Warwick campground
By DOMENIC POLI
Salamander Hollow Healing Habitat has a perfect recommendation rating on Hipcamp, a website and mobile app offering outdoor stays and camping experiences. Its profile page includes 431 ratings and 354 positive reviews. And within the next year the property will receive some special thanks in a film’s closing credits.
Let’s Talk Relationships: Uncovering the roots of negative self-talk: What you say to yourself echoes in your relationships
By AMY NEWSHORE
Our thoughts and beliefs about ourselves greatly impact how we feel and act in our close relationships. Humans are the only species that engage in “self-talk.” Many of us find ourselves having both positive thoughts about ourselves (for example, “I feel proud for what I just accomplished”) and other times negative and self-defeating thoughts (such as, “I am not attractive enough”). In my work with couples, it is often the derogatory self-talk that each individual engages in that contributes to the difficult and painful dynamics between partners.
Faith Matters: Human thought in touch with spiritual reality: An intro to the Christian Science Society
By KATHE GEIST and SUSAN SOLOMON
Faith can be seen as a glimmer of hope or light in an ever-changing world. How we enlarge and trust our faith is a question asked by many. How we define and find God in our own life can be a joyous spiritual journey.
Sounds Local: ‘Like a super-group-power-trio-creative-explosion’: Kalliope Jones release ‘Carnivorous’ and perform at the Iron Horse this week
By SHERYL HUNTER
There’s nothing unusual about kids getting together and forming a band, but what is unusual and remarkable is if the band stays together once the kids grow up.
Speaking of Nature: Cute as a killdeer: The killdeer have just arrived and are busy setting up territories
By BILL DANIELSON
We have reached that time of year when going to work in the morning becomes more difficult with every passing day. The world is waking up from its winter slumber and more and more items of interest present themselves to be observed and adored. I have a rather lengthy commute to work and as the amount of daylight increases each day, so to do the number of distractions. Like Odysseus tempted by the Sirens, I navigate this passage of temptation every day. There are mornings when I feel like my heart will break as I am forced to pilot myself past birds and flowers that sing out to me and beg me to stop and pay attention to them.
St. Sara’s chicken enchilada casserole: A colorful and comforting Tex-Mex dish
By TINKY WEISBLAT
We’re still in prime casserole weather so that’s what I’m making this week. This Tex-Mex dish is more Tex than Mex, but non-purists will enjoy its bubbly warmth.
Mill Street Artists displaying work at Hope & Olive in Greenfield
By MADISON SCHOFIELD
GREENFIELD — Four former students of Artspace Community Arts Center are showcasing their work at Hope & Olive through April and May.
Amherst can’t decide where it is: Is town center uptown or downtown?
By SCOTT MERZBACH
Those attending a recent ribbon-cutting for the new UMass Downtown retail store and event space in Amherst center were invited to an afterparty at the Uptown Tap & Grille, which despite having a seemingly different geographical designation, is a neighboring business in the same building.
‘She is our future’: Thirty years after permitting women to join, Montague Elks is almost entirely women-led
By ERIN-LEIGH HOFFMAN
It wasn’t until 1995 that women were permitted to join the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE), a century-old fraternal and charitable organization with local lodges across the United States. Thirty years later, the Montague Elks Lodge #2521 is entering a new era of leadership with women at the helm of the 50-year-old lodge.
‘Art in the Age of Human Impact’: New exhibition at UMass explores complex relationship between humans and nature
By CAROLYN BROWN
The total impact that humans have had on the environment may be hard to measure, but a new exhibition at the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s University Museum of Contemporary Art, running through Friday, May 9, aims to show some of that impact and create conversations about how artists respond to it with their work.
Valley Bounty: Nothing sweeter than sourcing local: Lemon Bakery in Amherst is a small, seasonal, from-scratch operation
By LISA GOODRICH
Named for sunny citrus fruit grown far from the valley, Lemon Bakery in Amherst mixes the sweet with the tart. Four years ago, in the uncertainty of the pandemic, owner Rori Hanson built a bakery business with a model of curbside pickup and delivery rather than a storefront. Hanson’s menu follows the seasons by sourcing from local farms. Today, Lemon Bakery continues to sell through online pre-ordering and curbside pickup or delivery; there is no storefront cafe.
Here to help the community’s artists: Human Scale Art Space aims to advance visual arts in the Pioneer Valley
By CAROLYN BROWN
It’s not uncommon for a small nonprofit not to have a physical space. It is, however, ironic when that nonprofit itself is called Human Scale Art Space.
Sounds Local: A legend pays tribute to an icon: Seven-time Grammy-nominated Joan Osborne brings Bob Dylan repertoire to Shea Theater
By SHERYL HUNTER
Joan Osborne was in her 20s when she took a deep dive into the music of Bob Dylan – and once she immersed herself into the legendary artist’s amazing musical well, Dylan’s vast catalog became an important part of her own musical journey.
Speaking of Nature: Stinky signs of spring: Skunk cabbage is eye candy after months of winter landscape
By BILL DANIELSON
March Madness is a term that has been assigned to the sport of college basketball. The idea is that a huge tournament creates a frenzied “madness” of athletic exuberance as different teams from across the country compete in a clash of collegiate contenders to see who will be crowned as champion. There are brackets, debates and wagers involved and everyone seems to have a good time.
For the love of peanut butter: April 2 is National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day
By TINKY WEISBLAT
When looking for inspiration for this column, I often consult lists of food holidays. I’m ambivalent about these holidays. On the down side, many of them were invented to serve corporate interests. On the plus side, new holidays are always fun to celebrate.
An argument for single payer health insurance: How government run insurance would help our schools
By DOUG SELWYN
Anguished cries coming out of school administration offices and school committee meetings signal the annual return of budget season. School district decision makers across the state desperately try to create budgets that serve the needs of all of their children. The money coming from the state and the drained treasuries of their local towns is nowhere near enough to cover the actual cost of educating the children.
Women’s history told through clothing: Shelburne Falls Area Women’s Club to host ‘Real Clothes, Real Lives: 200 Years of What Women Wore’ author, April 9
By MADISON SCHOFIELD
The Shelburne Falls Area Women’s Club is celebrating its 100th birthday this spring, and will kick off its centennial speaker series with a talk on the history of women’s clothing with Northampton author Kiki Smith on April 9 at the Shelburne-Buckland Community Center.
Your Daily Puzzles
An approachable redesign to a classic. Explore our "hints."
A quick daily flip. Finally, someone cracked the code on digital jigsaw puzzles.
Chess but with chaos: Every day is a unique, wacky board.
Word search but as a strategy game. Clearing the board feels really good.
Align the letters in just the right way to spell a word. And then more words.
