Community Calendar

Do we own our memories? The Onion is a new opera in which family secrets collide with a memory-enhancing AI. Through contact with their younger selves, its characters bring to the surface the experiences that have shaped their lives: a sexist theft of scientific work, the vanishing of a parent, the erasure of a gender identity. Will the intervention of an AI hurt or heal?

The opera unfolds on an island in the Pacific Northwest where a neuroscientist has sequestered herself with her daughter to create the Onion, an AI device that allows anyone using it to re-live a personal memory. Rounding out the human roles are the Onion’s young co-inventor and the neuroscientist’s ex-partner. The Onion itself is a character in the opera: its independence and influence on the human characters seem to grow each time they use it.

The Onion is a creation of composer/librettist Eric Sawyer and director/librettist Ron Bashford . The performance features a cast of five prominent Boston vocalists. The orchestra will be conducted by Ryan Turner, Music Director of Emmanuel Music. The production is co-presented by MassOpera.

William Baczek Fine Arts, in Northampton, Massachusetts is pleased to announce the opening of two solo exhibitions which will run concurrently during the month of September. Charlie Hunter and Jeff Gola are two artists who focus on the American landscape, but in very different styles and mediums. Jeff Gola will be exhibiting a new body of work in egg tempera paintings and Charlie Hunter will be showing oil and acrylic paintings. The two exhibitions will be on display from Wednesday, September 3 through Saturday, October 18, 2025. The public is invited to an opening reception on Saturday, September 6 from 4 to 6 p.m.

Consistently rated the best local scavenger hunt since 2016!

Puzzling Adventures are a cross between a scavenger hunt, an adventure race, and an informative self-guided walking tour. Each adventure consists of a series of locations that you are guided to where you are required to answer a question or solve a puzzle to receive your next instruction. Compete as a group, individually or create multiple teams and race each other. Almost all of our adventures are designed to be wheelchair and stroller friendly and all are carefully crafted to be entertaining and informative with something to appeal to all ages. Complete the adventure as quickly as possible to win first place or take your time and enjoy the journey. Price is per team, not per person. Groups can be any size, but small groups are recommended for the best experience.

Enter the code EVENTPASS on the payment page for a $10 discount!

Most locations are available daylight hours every day.

The Norman Rockwell Museum is honored to present a rare series of early twentieth century lighting advertisements by Norman Rockwell and fellow Golden Age illustrators Maxfield Parrish, N.C. Wyeth, Dean Cornwell, Stanley Arthurs, Worth Brehm, and Charles Chambers created for Edison Mazda Lamps, a division of the General Electric Company. These luminous, richly painted works were widely circulated in published advertisements through the 1920s and are on loan to the Museum for the first time through the generosity of GE Aerospace.

Each service includes an uplifting talk that touches on real-life experiences—like relationships, resilience, and personal growth—offering down-to-earth reflections to help you navigate life with clarity, compassion, and a sense of connection.

The healing portion of the service begins with a peaceful, guided meditation accompanied by live harp music, creating a calm and supportive space. Those who wish may then receive gentle, hands-on energy healing from certified Spiritualist healers while seated.

The service concludes with a demonstration of mediumship from the podium, where the medium shares messages from loved ones in spirit. These brief, heartfelt messages are intended to provide evidence of the continuity of life and offer comfort, healing, and connection.

We're thrilled to celebrate the release of the latest book from the National Book Award-winning author of the Penderwicks series, Jeanne Birdsall: THE LIBRARY OF UNRULY TREASURES! On September 14 at 1pm, join us, Jeanne herself, and community star Monte Belmonte for an unforgettable celebration at Bombyx Center for Arts & Equity here in Florence.

We'll have crafts at 1pm, followed by a talk between Jeanne and Monte, a Q&A, and then a book signing. Readers are encouraged to bring their beloved Birdsall books from home, and we'll have copies of THE LIBRARY OF UNRULY TREASURES for sale.

Tickets are pay-what-you-will, and no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Artists: Marianne Connolly and Rebecca Muller
Start Date: September 4, 2025
End Date: September 27, 2025
Reception Date: Thursday, September 4, 5–7:00 pm
Art Forum Online: September 18, 7:30 pm
Location name: Gallery A3
Hours: Thursday-Sunday, 2–7:00 pm
Address: 28 Amity St. 1D, Amherst, MA
City/Town: Amherst
Website: www.gallerya3.com
Description/info:
In Counterspells, Marianne Connolly works with intimately-scaled photography and hand-cut, hand-pasted collage, exploring familiar themes of nests, light, and winged beings while experimenting with new materials and methods. In Concatenations, Rebecca Muller exhibits several series of large-format photopolymer etchings and small groupings of mixed media assemblages composed of disparate matter and debris.

From Emotional Eating to Intuitive Eating: Reimagine a New Relationship with Food at Kripalu with Jenna Hollenstein, MS, RDN, CDN in the Berkshires September 12-14, 2025.

Emotional eating is a complex, multifaceted, and misunderstood issue. Few aspects of our relationship with food are as maligned as emotional eating, and our specific story about it contains hidden information essential to truly understanding our needs and ourselves.

You will:

+Learn how to decode your emotional eating.

+Understand what is happening in your body, heart, and mind in real time.

+Create a personalized menu of options to meet your needs with mindfulness, precision, and compassion.

Return home with a new way of looking at emotional eating, one that imagines it as an important form of communication from your inner teacher.

Jenna Hollenstein, MS, RDN, CDN, is an anti-diet dietitian, author, and meditation teacher who helps people struggling with chronic dieting, disordered eating, and body image.

The Climate Future Film Festival, with 10 short award-winning films from four continents, will be shown free of charge at 2:30 PM Sunday, Sept. 14, at Unitarian Universalist Society East, 153 Vernon Street West, Manchester CT.
The films, which explore the human and artistic response to climate change, run two hours and 10 minutes. Many of the films are in English. Those in other languages have captions. Come early to check out table information. Stay afterwards to discuss the impact of the films and ways to act on the climate crisis.

An event for music-lovers and grassroots organizers: Attend our Autumn Afternoon benefit concert featuring essential musicians of the Northampton area. Hosted by Smithie-led nonprofit organization Educate Young Girls, the benefit concert profits will go directly towards building a residential building for teenage mothers who have been expelled from their homes. With a safe place to raise their children, these girls will be able to pursue their studies and vocational education giving them both confidence and independence. There will be raffle tickets available for certificates and coupons from local businesses and restaurants, and additional donations are encouraged and appreciated. Performers include Kimaya Diggs, Hazel Basil, A Glezele Tey, The Lonesome Brothers, and Pamela Means, alongside two Smith A Cappella groups: The Smith College Vibes the Smiffenpoofs. We hope that this afternoon brings to the Northampton community an afternoon to appreciate how Northampton's lively culture of local collaboration and advocacy ever encourages students to practice their activism-- in this case, allowing us to transform the lives of hundreds of young women and girls 5,500 miles away in rural Cameroon.

Please visit our website for more information: https://educateyounggirls.org/
Tickets can be purchased at this link: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/autumn-afternoon-benefit-concert-hosted-by-educate-young-girls