Community Calendar

Join us for a night to celebrate stories of joy, survival, and resilience that point to a future where we can thrive amidst oppression!

After a sold-out debut and packed second show, the Queer Story Slam returns with its third event Prepare For The Good on Saturday, September 13th, at 7 PM at the Bombyx Center for Arts & Equity in Florence, MA.

How do you Prepare For The Good? Bear witness with us as storytellers share personal truths about what it takes to feel safe, seen, and connected in challenging times. What does protection and safety mean amongst confusion and fear? How do we become stronger and find pleasure unapologetically during hard times? How can we balance strength with love and kindness? On the other side of grief, exhaustion and sacred rage there is a world where we thrive as the fullest expression of ourselves, standing with our backs straight, side by side, stronger as a united front. Storytelling reminds us that we never apologize for speaking out loud.

This season’s theme, Prepare for the Good, is the motto of seasoned trans and Indigenous organizers at Imagine Water Works, who protect and resource their community in New Orleans against storms. View their beautiful Queer/Trans Guide to Storms, for art, poetry, and advice from queer people of color who have lived through catastrophe, and found beauty in the midst of it.

Step into a fabulous, feel-good hour of music, magic, and unapologetic joy in Belt It Out: A Big Gay Singalong! This one-of-a-kind musical celebration invites audiences to unleash their inner diva as they sing along to beloved showtunes, classic standards, and Disney anthems — all with a glittering queer twist.

Hosted by Tori McClain with Broadway-worthy pipes and Eden Casteel who has sass to spare, this interactive show blends powerhouse performances with crowd-led musical moments, cheeky commentary, and heartwarming stories that honor the LGBTQ+ community’s deep love affair with musical theatre. From Wicked to The Little Mermaid, Somewhere Over the Rainbow to Let It Go, no high note is too high, no harmony too ambitious, and no jazz hand left behind.

Whether you know every word or just want to bask in the sequined glow, this all-inclusive celebration promises laughter, nostalgia, and a whole lotta love — all set to the soundtrack of our shared queer joy. Come for the songs, stay for the soul!
This performance is a benefit for the Stonewall Community Foundation. This organization is a driving force in the fight for LGBTQ+ equity, investing in leaders, nonprofits, and innovative ideas that make a lasting impact. Their mission is to create a world where all queer people -especially those most marginalized- can live openly, freely, and authentically.

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Each of us has a story, our own personal history and collection of experiences that make us who we are. Storytelling is a natural part of collective learning. Around kitchen tables, at cookouts and family gatherings, after church, people gather and tell stories of wisdom of generations. Retelling of personal history— the mundane and the profound— is our path to liberation.

Tell Her This Community Storytelling Events bring an audience's stories and experiences to life. Musician and Podcaster, Rochelle Rice, will help participants present their personal stories, in the honest and heartfelt conversational style of Tell Her This Podcast. Stories will be presented live and accompanied by live music.

++Visit bombyx.live/events to submit your story for consideration.++

Tell Her This is more than a podcast—it’s a heartfelt journey into the lives of women, told through honest, intimate stories that transcend borders and generations. With over 100,000 downloads in 151 countries across six continents, Tell Her This has created a global community of listeners who are drawn to its raw authenticity and deeply personal narratives.

Hosted by music artist Rochelle Rice, the podcast is built on the power of connection. Traveling over 6,000 miles across the U.S., Rochelle has gathered stories that reflect the complexities of the human experience. From the bittersweet ache of family estrangement to the transformative moments of near-death experiences, Tell Her This shines a light on the strength, vulnerability, and beauty of women’s lives.

Tell Her This Live! brings these stories to life in a three-dimensional, multi-media experience. Audiences are immersed in audio vignettes from the podcast, paired with Rochelle’s emotionally charged performances of original music blending pop, soul, and jazz. This is set against a backdrop of striking video imagery from Strong, Like Water, a large-scale portrait art installation that honors the resilience and grace of women.

Through words, music, and visual art, Tell Her This invites listeners to connect with the profound and universal truths found in personal stories, proving that even in our differences, we are connected.

An evening in 3 parts:

Guided meditation and chakras clearing with bass drum, slow beats vibrations Attunement to your own frequency with tenor and alto hand drums, rattles and vocalizations Molecular/DNA level higher frequencies with crystal and metal soprano singing bowls

-Bring your journal, feel free to write down your experience at anytime, share it at the end if inspired.

-Bring anything that will make 90min comfortable: yoga mat(s) or a chair, a blanket, a pillow, eye cover, water or tea. No talking preferred, phones on off mode.

As part of our ongoing partnership with Bombyx resident company, the Young @ Heart Chorus we're excited to screen the Walker George documentary Young@Heart which was originally released in 2007 and won two Rose d’Or awards, as well as the LA Film Festival Audience Award, and was also screened at Sundance and SXSW Festivals.

In a society obsessed with youth and perfection, Young @ Heart is an engaging reminder that unless you check out early, aging is an inevitable part of life - and approaching it with wit and creativity is essential!

The screening will be followed by a short performance and talkback

Join us as we celebrate 120 years of ministry to the community with a jazz buffet luncheon with a live performance from Springfield's own and internationally acclaimed artist, Connie Fredericks- Malone. There will be door prizes, raffles, and more. We would love to see you there

Cello and Chocolate...does it get any better? Each time we host this event, Jeremy and Dave surprise us with a new theme and new compositions.

Join us for a lovely multi-sensory experience that will feature the (mostly) soothing sounds of the Harman/Haughey Cello Duo paired with the delicious flavors of Ana Bandeira Chocolates of Northampton. Who better to curate both sounds and tastes other than the Valley's favorite cellist/chocolateer Dave Haughey? Dave is both the owner of Ana Bandeira Chocolates as well as a stellar multi-genre cellist who has performed internationally with the Paul Winter Consort and is joined by Jeremy Harman, Artistic Director of the New Directions Cello Festival and professor of cello at the Berklee College of Music.

This event is part soundbath and part concert. Please bring cushions, yoga mats, and blankets to make yourselves comfortable. Naturally, we will also have folding chairs for those who prefer not to sit on the floor.

Card to Culture tickets available.

“New Songs for an Old Poet” is a series of four concerts that will span the remainder of 2025. Organized by long-time Valley vocalist Peter W. Shea, who is also the principal performer, the series presents a very wide variety of songs, all of them musical settings of the great nineteenth-century German-Jewish poet Heinrich Heine, whose verses have been set to music more than any other poet. All are works that Peter has in some way helped to bring into the world, either by suggestion, commission, or premiere, as part of his thirty-year project on Heine and the music he continues to inspire. All but one of the sixty-plus songs have been composed since the turn of this century, with two-thirds of the composers being from New England.

This concert, “Heinrich Heine, Far and Near,” features sixteen songs by thirteen composers who hail from as far away as Germany and as close at hand as the Pioneer Valley. The songs range in style from cabaret to classical, in mood from witty to tragic, and in tonality from Baroque to twelve-tone. Nearly all display some aspect of Heine’s characteristic irony, and several will be sung in English translation. Peter will be joined by mezzo-soprano and guitarist Justina Golden, pianist and guitarist Clifton J. Noble, Jr., and soprano Junko Watanabe.

The award winning and highly acclaimed band Le Vent du Nord are a leading force in Québec’s exciting and progressive Francophone folk movement. The group’s vast repertoire draws from both traditional sources and original compositions, while their highly rhythmic and soulful music, rooted in the Celtic diaspora, is enhanced with a broad range of global influences.

The band exhibits great finesse and flexibility, appearing regularly on Canadian, American, French, and UK television and radio, and participating in a wide variety of special musical projects. They’ve collaborated and performed with a diverse range of artists including: Harry Manx, Väsen, Dervish, The Chieftains, Breton musical pioneer Yann-Fañch Kemener, Québecois roots legend and master storyteller Michel Faubert, the Scottish folk band Breabach (a Bombyx favorite), singer Julie Fowlis, and the trans-Mediterranean ensemble Constantinople.

Not content with standard approaches to tradition, Le Vent du Nord has also created a symphonic concert that, according to Voir Montreal, “puts all traditional folk naysayers to shame.”

On stage these friends create intense, joyful and dynamic live performances that expand the bounds of tradition in striking global directions. This is the modern sound of tradition, a music of the here and now.