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Dec. 6, 2023:Runner-up hip-hop holigays

(from right) Kaliis Smith, Northampton city councilor Garrick Perry a.k.a Force, organizer of Hip Hop for the Homeless Joey Batts, Eraun Dugger a.k.a Catalyst at the NEPM Studios
Joyce Skoywra
/
NEPM
(from right) Kaliis Smith, Northampton city councilor Garrick Perry a.k.a Force, organizer of Hip Hop for the Homeless Joey Batts, Eraun Dugger a.k.a Catalyst at the NEPM Studios

‘Tis the season for caring. Actually every season is the season for caring, but we doubly feel it in the cold.

So we’re bringing our donations to where the beats are plentiful and the rhymes don’t stop. Hip Hop for the Homeless X arrives in Massachusetts for the first time ever on Dec. 7th at Gateway City Arts in Holyoke. We chat with organizer Joey Batts and a couple of MCs you can see onstage at the event, Catalyst and Force, about the importance of giving back to the community with your art, and sharing the spotlight with upcoming talent.

And we’re bringing the love and support to the transgender and genderfluid communities also. Transhealthhas nearly quadrupled in size as an organization over the course of the year, with as much growth if not more in the patients they seek to help. But parties can also be healing, and they are throwing a shindig at the Marigold Theater in Easthampton on Dec. 9th. The Holigay Party aims to spread joy and good grooves as much as it raises much needed funds for their burgeoning community of care, and we chat with directorDallas Ducar about the changes they’ve seen through the last few months, and about how letting go can be healthy for you too.

And it turns out that we care not just about Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year (“authentic” in case you missed it), but it’s bridesmaids as well. So resident wordster, Emily Brewster, our word nerd and senior editor from Merriam-Webster, takes us through a handful of the words that will not be brides this year, but still deserve a little time in the sun.

Christopher “Monte'' Belmonte is host and executive producer of NEPM's The Fabulous 413. He was born and raised in Massachusetts and has been a radio host in western Massachusetts for the last 20 years — the last 17 of them as host of Mornings with Monte on The River 93.9/WRSI.
Kaliis Smith is a radio host and producer for NEPM's The Fabulous 413. She was most recently host and producer at The River 93.9/WRSI where she appeared on Mornings with Monte for the Nerdwatch segment and hosted weekday evenings.