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By STEVE PFARRER

As Steve Sanderson sees it, First Night Northampton is getting its mojo back.The annual New Year’s Eve celebration got shot down two years in a row by COVID-19, first in December 2020 and then again in December 2021 when, just days before the event...

By STEVE PFARRER

People celebrate the holidays in different ways.Lucas Fappiano and Colin Hodgson are doing it by hosting a free screening of movies by area filmmakers, with the goal of bringing people together to recognize some of the Valley’s artistic strength and...

By STEVE PFARRER

Back in 2004, actor Paul Giamatti teamed up with screenwriter/director and Alexander Payne in “Sideways,” an offbeat comedy/drama about two friends who take a road trip through the California wine country as they both grapple with midlife crises of a...

By STEVE PFARRER

Steven LeBlanc made his first foray into mixing drinks and bartending when he was in the Navy, researching a lot on his own, creating classic cocktails and his variations on them and testing them on friends and shipmates, then serving drinks in an...

By STEVE PFARRER

The holidays are nearly upon us and, no surprise, the Valley’s music calendar is chock full of holiday shows over the next week, with some featuring bands playing their versions of seasonal tunes and others focused more on spreading general good...

By STEVE PFARRER

The 1980s were a brutal time in South Africa. Decades of apartheid, the ironbound racial segregation system that relegated a majority Black population to second-class citizenship under white rule, led to increasing Black resistance, followed by severe...

By STEVE PFARRER

Noche Trist: A Memoir of AnorexiaBy Robert RadinIbidem/Columbia University Press A few years ago, Robert Radin, the the director of citizenship and immigration services for Jewish Family Service in Springfield, wrote a memoir about his experience...

By STEVE PFARRER

Scott Norris says he’s been a huge fan of books, of reading, of words themselves, for many years. He’s also fascinated by calligraphy and different kinds of text, as well as letterpress printers and early printing methods — oh, and 18th-century...

By STEVE PFARRER

A bit over 10 years ago, Ilan Stavans, the longtime Amherst College professor and writer, made his first venture into the business world: starting a publishing company dedicated to international writing.Restless Books, whose tagline is “an...

By STEVE PFARRER

Seymour Chwast turned 92 this summer. But in his heart, he might still be about 8 or 9 years old, based on the work he continues to create.A legendary graphic designer who, beginning in the 1950s, helped revolutionize the look of commercial art,...

By STEVE PFARRER

Summer’s long past, and so are the watermelons. But Watermelon Wednesdays, the long-running summertime acoustic music series at the West Whately Chapel, isn’t ready to pull the plug on its concerts.On Dec. 6, they’re sponsoring what they call...

By STEVE PFARRER

Still hunting for holiday gifts? Want to check out some new art? You can do both by visiting area galleries this month, which offer a variety of exhibits. Here’s a look at some of the shows.Michelson Galleries, Northampton — The Eric Carle Museum...

By STEVE PFARRER

The Original Bucky Lew: Basketball’s First Black Professionalby Chris BoucherWings ePress, Inc.Harry “Bucky” Lew might not have the name recognition of Jackie Robinson. But the two men had something in common: Both broke an unstated color barrier in...

By STEVE PFARRER

As Jay Sefton recalls, it was “a real honor” to be chosen to play Jesus Christ is his Catholic school’s annual production of a Passion Play, the historic theatrical presentation of Christ’s trial, suffering and death.It was 1985, and Sefton, who grew...

By STEVE PFARRER

The Northampton Playwrights Lab’s theater series, following a five-year hiatus, returns next weekend (Nov. 30-Dec. 3) with six productions, in a forum designed to introduce audiences to innovative work being created by several area playwrights.The...

By STEVE PFARRER

As Jay Sefton recalls, it was “a real honor” to be chosen to play Jesus Christ is his Catholic school’s annual production of a Passion Play, the historic theatrical presentation of Christ’s trial, suffering and death.It was 1985, and Sefton, who grew...

By STEVE PFARRER

It’s been a long run — but the finish line is now in view.The Northampton Community Arts Trust building, largely or partly shuttered for most of this year, is poised to reopen, as work to make the final improvements in the 25,000-square-foot building...

By STEVE PFARRER

When staff at the Bombyx Center for Arts & Equity, in the midst of doing renovations in the basement, came across a tattered but still readable playbill from a concert apparently staged at the property in 1873 — then known simply as the Florence...

By STEVE PFARRER

It’s a modest space, a basement area that’s right next door to one of Northampton’s busiest art centers, the A.P.E. Gallery, and just another door down from an even larger arts space, R. Michelson Galleries.But Rhynia, a new arts and event space in...

By STEVE PFARRER

When “supergroups” first formed in the 1960s after rock stars from different bands teamed up with one another — Cream, Blind Faith, and CSNY were among the first — some became known more for their battles of superstar egos and didn’t stay together...