Search Results

By Line search: By STEVE PFARRER

By STEVE PFARRER

Finding Home (Hungary, 1945)By Dean Cycon; Koehler Books A common image from the end of World War II in Europe is that of cheering crowds of people welcoming Allied troops in towns and cities that had been liberated from the Nazis.A lesser-known and...

By STEVE PFARRER

Is the dog man’s best friend? Or it is the horse?Based on the longevity of their relationship with humans, horses might have the better claim. Researchers have estimated horses were widely domesticated at least 4,000 years ago and even further back...

By STEVE PFARRER

June Millington is a familiar name in the Valley music scene, a veteran guitarist and educator who since the early 2000s has overseen numerous programs at The Institute for the Musical Arts (IMA), the Goshen center dedicated to supporting women and...

By STEVE PFARRER

Like many theater organizations, Real Live Theater (RLT) was shut down from producing live performances for over two years due to the pandemic.But the Valley performance ensemble, now celebrating its 10th anniversary, is swinging back into action,...

By STEVE PFARRER

A little less than 25 years ago, Matthew Shepard, a young, gay University of Wyoming student, was severely beaten by two other young men outside of Laramie, Wyoming, who then left him to die by tying him to a fence alongside a pasture at night in...

By STEVE PFARRER

When it comes to transgender rights, the headlines across many parts of the country have become increasingly ugly in the last several months.At least 15 states, all controlled by Republicans, have banned or restricted gender-affirming medical care for...

By STEVE PFARRER

Until recently, it hasn’t seemed like much of a spring: a lot of damp or rainy days, overcast skies, and cold nights.But the weather has warmed up this week, just in time to be a fitting backdrop to an art exhibit designed to celebrate...

By STEVE PFARRER

In the United States, the early 20th century has often been portrayed as a time of hope and excitement, in which the nation’s growing industrial power, improvements in mass communications, and advances in technology and science heralded a new era of...

By STEVE PFARRER

They’re back. And they’re in love.The Young@Heart Chorus, which celebrated its 40th anniversary last November at a sold-out concert at the Academy of Music in Northampton, will return to the Academy this Sunday with a new program dubbed “The Love...

By STEVE PFARRER

‘Labor of love” might a cliche. But when it comes to her new film, “Four Winters: A Story of Jewish Partisan Resistance and Bravery During WWII,” Julia Mintz says the expression is very much appropriate.Mintz, a documentary filmmaker who splits her...

By STEVE PFARRER

Homeland: My Father Dreams of PalestineBy Hannah MoushabeckIllustrated by Reem Madooh; Chronicle BooksGrowing up mostly in Leverett, Hannah Moushabeck remembers hearing any number of bedtime stories from her father, Michel, alongside her two...

By STEVE PFARRER

It’s mostly a lesser-known footnote to his career: From 1983 to 1986, James Baldwin was based at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he was part of the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies and taught students from across the...

By STEVE PFARRER

AMHERST — Tibetan activist and writer Tenzin Tsundue, who’s been arrested and jailed multiple times for his activism, is coming to the Valley for a series of talks and to introduce his newest collection of poetry.Tsundue was born in 1975 in India to...

By STEVE PFARRER

For Will Schneider, putting on this pair of glasses opened up his vision to a depth of color he wouldn’t ordinarily see.“The blue is so much more textured,” said Schneider as he peered at an illustration at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art....

By STEVE PFARRER

The idea first came to Elijah Bynum about four years ago when he was exercising in a California gym and noticed an ultra-serious bodybuilder, a guy who was “radiating intensity” as he went through his paces.“There was this really intense energy about...

By STEVE PFARRER

AMHERST — After nearly 18 years at the helm of the largest art gallery at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Loretta Yarlow will step down from the University Museum of Contemporary Art (UMCA) at the end of June.Yarlow, who came to the Valley...

By STEVE PFARRER

Story slams have become all the rage in the last couple of decades, an outgrowth of poetry slams in which competitors tell real-life tales instead of reciting verse. The topics vary, but the goal is the same: tell short, engaging and truthful...

By STEVE PFARRER

AMHERST — The Mead Art Museum at Amherst College, which has been closed to the public for nearly three years, is poised to reopen with two new exhibits in place.The museum shut its doors for all in March 2020 when COVID-19 arrived, and though it...

By STEVE PFARRER

In a long career that’s seen him win a Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award, and a boatload of praise, Williamsburg writer Tracy Kidder has tackled a number of different subjects: the computer revolution, elementary schools, civil war refugees, the...

By STEVE PFARRER

Time was when Rachel Portesi did much of her photography using Polaroid film. She loved the immediacy of the image, the way each photo was different and often didn’t quite match what her eye had seen, and what she calls “the feeling of Christmas when...