NEPM Book Club
Thursday, April 24 at 7 p.m. on Zoom
While you’re waiting to get back your own garden, you can dig into "The Gardener’s Plot" which introduces amateur sleuth Maggie Walker in Deborah J. Benoit’s Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award-winning debut. After life threw Maggie a few curveballs, she’s happy to be back in the small Berkshires town where she spent much of her childhood. She signs on to help set up a community garden in the Berkshires, only to find a body in one of the plots on opening day.
The Children’s Museum at Holyoke
Open Tuesday through Friday 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Saturday 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., Sunday 12 – 4 p.m.
Lots of special activities make this a great place to hang out with the little ones in your life during February school vacation week. The Highland Street Foundation is sponsoring free admission on Friday, and on Saturday there’s a Lego build competition with three age categories.
Massachusetts Multicultural Film Festival
Wednesdays, Feb. 19 – April 23
The Interdepartmental Program in Film Studies at UMass launches the thirty-second season of the Massachusetts Multicultural Film Festival, with the theme of “Documenting Dissent.” Starting with Borderland | The Line Within, the festival will showcase a diverse and international array of new and recent documentary films. Most of the films will be shown Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. at the UMass Amherst Isenberg School of Management Room 137. This week’s film will be shown at Amherst Cinema at 7 p.m.
The Bulb Show
Berkshire Botanical Garden, Stockbridge
Friday, Feb. 21 – Sunday, March 23 from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.
They call it an immersive, “face-in-flowers” experience. A spectacular preview of spring in the depths of winter, this sensory delight features hundreds of flowering bulbs, including classic favorites like tulips, daffodils and grape hyacinths, as well as lesser-known varieties. It’s free and open to all. Psst! The Smith College Spring Bulb Show opens Saturday, March 1.
Harambee: A History of Cultivating Black Togetherness through Food Justice
Veritas Auditorium, Berchmans Hall, Elms College
Friday, Feb. 21 from 12:30 – 4:30 p.m.
Inspired by the Kenyan concept of Harambee, a Swahili word for “all pull together,” the 8th Annual Black Experience Summit at Elms College focuses on the theme of togetherness within the food justice movement. The program includes a viewing of the documentary “High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America,” and keynote speaker Crystal Wilkinson, Kentucky Poet Laureate and author of “Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts.” The summit’s panel will be headlined by Bronx-based advocate Karen Washington, a community gardener and board member of the New York Botanical Gardens.
M@A Presents: Limmie Pulliam, tenor
Buckley Recital Hall, Amherst College
Friday Feb. 21 at 7:30 p.m.
Rising dramatic tenor Limmie Pulliam comes to the 413 after recent debuts with the Metropolitan Opera, Cleveland Orchestra and The Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Yannick Nézét-Seguin. San Francisco Classical Voice says, “Pulliam can roar, he can sing sweetly, and he can simmer, all the while creating a dramatically believable character." For his Music @ Amherst recital he will present a program of spirituals, songs, and arias with Spencer Myer, piano.
Pothole Pictures: Lost Nation
Memorial Hall Theater, Shelburne Falls
Friday Feb. 21 and Saturday, Feb. 22 at 7:30 p.m.
Vermont film director Jay Craven’s Lost Nation offers a new telling of Vermont’s Revolutionary War history through the interlaced stories of Ethan Allen and Lucy Terry Prince. Allen was a farmer, writer, soldier, politician and Vermont founding father who fought for the state’s independence with his Green Mountain Boys. Prince was an African American poet whose 1746 poem, “Bars Fight” is considered the oldest known piece of literature by an African American. As per Pot Hole Pictures tradition, there will be music starting at 7 p.m. — a Celtic jam on Friday and a community sing-along on Saturday. Plus, Jay Craven will be on hand for a “meet the director” Q&A after the Saturday show.
Fifth Annual Fire & Ice Festival + Luminaria
Amherst Common
Saturday, Feb. 22 from 3–6 p.m.
This annual celebration of the beauty and excitement of the winter season attracts over 2,000 attendees each year. You can check out ten intricate ice sculptures displayed throughout the Amherst Common, participate in creative winter-themed tie-dye projects, enjoy a fire juggling performance, watch metal sculpture and wood carving demos, meet Sparky the Fire Pup, and sip complimentary hot cocoa and roast s’mores over open fire pits. It’s part of the week-long Winterfest Amherst.
Alice Parker Festival
Abbey Chapel, Mount Holyoke College
Saturday, Feb. 22 at 4 p.m.
The Pioneer Valley Symphony is bringing seven local choirs together to honor the legacy of Alice Parker, a renowned figure in choral music who wrote many operas, song-cycles, cantatas, works for chorus and orchestra, choral suites, and original hymns. She also arranged spirituals, hymns, and folk songs, including French, Spanish, Hebrew, and Latino folk songs, many of which have become part of the repertoire of choirs around the world.
Viviana Cumplido Wilson, flute
Bezanson Recital Hall, UMass
Saturday, Feb. 22 at 4 p.m.
This free concert closes Western Mass Flute Day at UMass. Viviana Cumplido Wilson has served as principal flute of the Phoenix Symphony since 2006 and the Colorado Music Festival in Boulder since 2010. Prior to her appointment in Phoenix, Viviana held the same position with the Tucson Symphony for three seasons. For this recital she will be joined by UMass Associate Professor of Flute Cobus du Toit and pianist JingJing Wan.
The Power and the Glory with Fleur Barron and Kunal Lahiry
Bowker Auditorium, UMass
Saturday, Feb. 22 at 8 p.m.
Singaporean-British mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron is a passionate interpreter of opera, chamber music, and concert works ranging from the baroque to the contemporary. Indian American pianist Kunal Lahiry is a BBC New Generation Artist. In The Power and the Glory, which they will perform at Carnegie Hall soon, Barron and Lahiry explore diverse perspectives of colonial history through music and poetry of the last 150 years.
Tommy Castro and the Painkillers
Shea Theater, Turners Falls
Saturday, Feb. 22 at 8 p.m.
Throughout his long, constantly evolving career, guitarist, singer and songwriter Tommy Castro has always remained true to himself while exploring, growing and creating new music. His musical foundation is a dynamic mix of 1960s-influenced guitar-fueled blues, testifying Memphis-soaked blue-eyed soul and Latin-tinged East San Jose funk, all driven by Castro’s grab-you-by-the-collar vocals and passionate guitar work.
Book Release Tea & Talk
Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray
Ventfort Hall, Lenox
Sunday, Feb. 23 at 3 p.m.
Ventfort Hall is celebrating Black History Month, and W.E.B. Dubois's birthday with a special Tea & Talk. Victoria Christopher Murray, the New York Times best-selling author and co-author of The Personal Librarian and The First Ladies, returns to Ventfort Hall to celebrate the release of her latest solo novel, Harlem Rhapsody. Hear a reading from the book by Victoria, get your copy signed, and have tea with fellow historical fiction fans in a beautiful Gilded Age mansion.
Lonesome Brothers 40th Birthday Party
Iron Horse, Northampton
Sunday, Feb. 23 at 7 p.m.
The Northampton Arts Council celebrates the 40th anniversary of the legendary western Mass. trio, Lonesome Brothers. They formed in 1985 and have been alt-country Americana favorites since before the terms Alt-country and Americana were coined. The celebration will include an all-star cast of local musicians performing their songs in tribute along with a set from the band themselves. Plus, Ray, Jim and Keith will be on The Fabulous 413 this week for Live Music Friday.
Scissoring by CQ Quintana, directed by Kelsey Rainwater
Hallie Flanagan Studio Theatre, Smith College
Wednesday, Feb. 26 through Saturday, March 1 at 7:30 p.m.
Set in New Orleans in 2018, Scissoring conveys the myriad intricacies of closeted life in the late 2010s when the city was recovering from Hurricane Katrina. When Abigail Bauer takes a job as a teacher at a conservative Catholic school, she is forced to step back into the closet against the wishes of her long-term girlfriend. Presented by the Smith College Department of Theater.