Featuring a folk veteranand organizer

AMHERST — Folksinger and songwriter Paul Kaplan, a longtime host of the Pioneer Valley Folklore Society’s Song & Story Swap, will mark 25 years of involvement with the event Sept. 2 when he plays as the featured performer.

This month’s Song & Story Swap begins at 7 p.m. at First Church and will be around the theme of “climate.”

Kaplan, who lives in Amherst, has been part of the folk music world since the late 1960s, when many of his early songs were published in the protest song magazine “Broadside.” In the 1970s, he also produced three posthumous albums by noted folk/protest singer Phil Ochs.

A number of other artists have recorded Kaplan’s songs over the years, and in the 1980s his environmental songs landed him a spot in the Hudson River Sloop Singers with Pete Seeger. He’s the recipient of 11 ASCAP songwriting awards and will be touring in Denmark, Germany and England this fall.

Attendees of the Sept. 2 show are invited to contribute a song or story on the topic of “climate” during an opening round before Kaplan’s performance. Admission is free, with a suggested minimum donation via virtual tip jar to the artist of $7.50.

More information is available at pvfs.us.

New season,new director at UMCA

AMHERST — The University Museum of Contemporary Art, the largest gallery at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is opening the 2023-2024 year with a new director and three fresh exhibits.

Amanda Herman, who’s served as education curator at UMCA since 2018, has been appointed the museum’s interim director. She takes over for the former director, Loretta Yarlow, who retired earlier this summer after nearly 18 years heading UMCA.

Herman, who moved to the area from San Francisco in 2012, has previously taught photography, art and social practice in the Five College system in addition to working on a number of art projects with organizations and public school in Springfield, Holyoke and Easthampton.

As UMCA’s education curator, Herman has expanded the range of programs, from teaching graduate students to curate their own exhibitions to having undergraduates serve as museum educators at the gallery. She also plans public programs and collaborations with faculty across disciplines, from the College of Nursing to Department of Art History.

A UMCA, she’s overseeing three new exhibits opening Sept. 22: “Strangeness,” a large-scale video installation by Raida Adon that explores themes of displacement; “Artists, Born Elsewhere,” works from UMCA’s permanent collection by artists who immigrated to the U.S.; and works by Westhampton artist Susan Yard.

An opening reception for all three exhibits takes place at the museum Sept. 21 from 5 to 7 p.m.

 

Little Amal visits the Valley

ASHFIELD — Little Amal, a 12-foot puppet of a young Syrian refugee girl that has already traveled through 15 countries as a symbol of human rights, is headed to the United States — and to the Valley.

The partly animatronic puppet, built by a South African company and first used as part of a performance art project called “The Walk” in 2021, will come to Ashfield Sept. 10 as part of a 6,000-mile journey across the U.S. that starts Sept. 7 in Boston.

The event in Ashfield, hosted by Double Edge Theatre, the Ohketeau Cultural Center, and Jupiter Performance Studios, begins at 12:45 p.m. at Ashfield Town Commons, where Little Amal will be welcomed by Larry Spotted Crow Mann of the Ohketeau Cultural Center.

The puppet will then be moved to Ashfield Lake to be greeted by members of the Nipmuc community, who will be paddling a recently burned mishoon.

Little Amal’s tour continues to North Adams later on Sept. 10 and goes to Hartford, Connecticut Sept. 12. The tour is slated to extend through more than 30 additional cities in the U.S., ending in San Diego in early November.

The puppet’s journey began along the border of Syria and Turkey as a means to draw attention to the huge numbers of children fleeing war, violence and persecution.

The event in Ashfield is free and open to the public.

 

61 Days ofHalloween

NORTHAMPTON — Spill the Tea Sis, the apothecary and metaphysical shop on Main Street, has hired its first events manager, Cristiano Gazzara, to plan and oversee a variety of free community events.

Gazzara, who has connections with many local restaurants and businesses from work as a wine sales representative, is being charged with developing an array of activities at Spill the Tea, including “61 Days of Halloween.”

Running from Sept. 1 through Halloween itself, this special programming will include wellness and self-care events, workshops, public readings, parties, and more: 61 days “of spooky and spectacular experiences,” the shop says.

Mischa Roy, founder and owner of Spill the Tea Sis, says Gazzara, who has produced past events for the queer community, has the background and drive for “fostering meaningful connections” that match “our vision of creating a thriving community hub for spiritual exploration and artistic expression.”

“The 61 Days of Halloween celebration is just the beginning,” Gazzara added in statement, “and I can’t wait to curate more exciting events throughout the fall and beyond.”

 

Lucky andAuthentic

NORTHAMPTON — The A.P.E. Gallery will feature two exhibits this month: one that explores the other creative talents of tattoo artists, and another that celebrates the lives of trans people.

Running from Sept. 1 through 24, “Lucky Us? Lucky You” features artwork by employees of Lucky’s Tattoo and Piercing, which has been in downtown Northampton since 1998 (and also has studios in Easthampton and Cambridge).

The A.P.E. exhibit will feature a variety of artwork designed to show how employees from Lucky’s “express themselves outside of the realm of body art,” as press notes put it.

“The creative and passionate people who make up our team inspire each other every day to explore different approaches to their practices, in body art and beyond.”

And from Sept. 27 through 29, A.P.E. will feature “Authentic Selves,” portraits of trans people and their families from the Valley and further afield.

The photos are taken from a book of the same title, which includes interviews with people conducted by Peggy Gillespie of the Valley nonprofit group family Diversity Projects.

A reading and panel discussion takes place Sept. 29 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. with Gillespie and members of local families featured in the exhibit and book.

Also on hand will be Holyoke author Lesléa Newman, author of “Always Matt,” a new tribute to Matthew Shepard, the gay Wyoming man murdered 25 years ago in what became an international story.

— compiled by Steve Pfarrer 

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