What’s Happening In Amherst?

More Local Events.
Events Listing For The Week Beginning June 3, 2022

There’s a lot happening in Amherst!

After over a year hiatus, we are bringing back our events calendar – What’s Happening In Amherst?

With the shrinkage of public events during the pandemic, we discontinued posting our weekly community calendar and opted to run individual stories about select upcoming events.  Now, with the coming of spring and the seeming attrition of the pandemic, we’ve seen the return of a full and diverse slate of local happenings in and around Amherst and our weekly dispatch is starting to be overwhelmed by stories about upcoming events.   Moving forward, we intend to run a handful of stories/annoucements each week featuring a handful of upcoming events that might be of special interest or offer unique opportunities. We will list other events here, in the What’s Happening in Amherst? column which you’ll be able to find at the end of the “events section”.   In this weekly column we’d like to offer a comprehensive weekly calendar of things to do around the Valley but we just don’t have the wherewithal to pull that off.  So our events listing will be eclectic. But readers can count on finding an interesting list of things to do with an emphasis on the progressive.  

You can help us to make this calendar useful by sending your events listings to amherstindy@gmail.com.

IN PERSON EVENTS

EVERY SATURDAY through NOVEMBER 19. Amherst Farmers’ Market. Town Common 7:30 a.m – 1:30 p.m. Farm to table produce from local growers and producers. Food, music and events. More information including a list of vendors.

EVERY SUNDAY through OCTOBER 2: Early Bird. Early Birding at the Notch Visitors Center. 1500 West Street. 9:00-9:30 a.m. Join a Park Interpreter on a fun beginner bird stroll. Learn about birds, their behaviors, their needs and habitats. Listen, watch, stroll, sketch or journal on this interactive program. We will do a moderate, 1/2 mile hike around the visitor center and down a short trail. More Information.

EVERY LAST FRIDAY OF THE MONTH BEGINNING MAY 27: Poetry Night At The Drake, 44 North Pleasant Street. 7-10 p.m. In New York City, you’d go to the world-renowned Nuyorican Poets Cafe. In Washington, D.C., you’d be enjoying an evening at Busboys and Poets. In Houston, you’d find yourself in Avant Garden at Write About Now. In Western Massachusetts, the place to be now on the last Friday of the month is at The Drake. The inaugural “Last Friday Poetry Night” is scheduled for May 27 and has been designated a pilot event for the monthly series that will begin in the fall. “Last Fridays at The Drake” will be hosted by Lyrical Faith and will feature open mic as well as award-winning spoken word artists from across the country. Come for music, drinks, and artistic expression where poets take center stage to share new work, old work, or any work that helps them get free. Doors and bar open at 5 p.m.. Early arrival is encouraged to get a slot on the sign-up sheet. The cover charge is $5 with a college ID or $10 for general admission.

Lyrical Faith is a Black American Educator, Activist, and Spoken Word Poet from The Bronx, NY. She is the third- ranked Woman Poet in the World as of the 2022 Women of the World Poetry Slam, an inaugural Bronx Poet Laureate finalist, a two-time recipient of the Bronx Council on the Arts BRIO Award, and the 2015 Syracuse University Poet of the Year. She’s a graduate of the Public Relations program at Syracuse University, a Masters degree recipient of the Higher Education and Student Affairs program at NYU, and a current Social Justice Education doctoral student at UMass Amherst studying the intersections of arts and activism.

THROUGH WEDNESDAY JUNE 29: Wildlife Photography Exhibit by Mark Lindhuldt. US Fish and Wildlife Service, 300 Westgate Center Drive, Hadley. 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Mark Lindhult has a passion for capturing the beauty of nature and the unique behaviors of birds and wildlife in the landscape. Special moments in time are fleeting but can be frozen in our memory through the art of photography and this exhibit shows some of those moments.

As a Professor Emeritus of Landscape Architecture at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a Principle Emeritus at The Berkshire Design Group, Mark brings his knowledge of landscape, ecology, design and composition to inform his photography and advocate for habitat preservation. His photographs have been exhibited at UMass Amherst in the Design Building Gallery, the US Fish and Wildlife Headquarters Gallery, the Baystate Medical Center Gallery and Franklin Medical Center. He’s also granted permission to several non-profit groups to use his photographs in newsletters, reports, notecards and postcards. These groups include the Friends of Quabbin, the Massachusetts Rivers Alliance and the Kestrel Land Trust. You can see more examples of his work at: https://www.marklindhult.com

THROUGH SATURDAY JULY 2.: Syncopate: Homage To Jazz at Gallery A3. Inspired by the syncopation of jazz, regional artists Donald Boudreaux, Andres Chaparro, Bobby Davis, Terry Jenoure, and Rodney Madison present paintings, drawings, photographs, prints, and sculptures that display a bold and beautiful interplay of complex visual rhythms in a new exhibit at Gallery A3, 28 Amity Street.   An online art forum is scheduled for June 16 at 7:30 p.m.  More Information here and here.

FRIDAY JUNE 3: Pride Month: Proclamation Reading and Flag Raising. Thanks 5:30-6:00 p.m. Steps of Town Hall. 4 Boltwood Avenue. The Amherst Town Council proclaims June as LGBTQ+ Pride Month. The community is invited to the reading of the proclamation and the raising of the Pride Flag on Friday, June 3rd outside of Amherst Town Hall.

SATURDAY, JUNE 4. NEPM Asparagus Festival. Hadley Town Common, 10 a.m. – 7 p.m. Once known as “the asparagus capital of the world,” western Massachusetts is still home to hundreds of working farms and many more locally-owned restaurants and breweries. Now in its eighth year, the NEPM Asparagus Festival returns to the Hadley Town Common to celebrate the region’s legacy of agriculture and community. Lots of activities for kids and adults. More information.

SATURDAY JUNE 4: Coffee With Congressman Jim McGovern. Bub’s BBQ, 676 Amherst Road, Sunderland. 1:30- 2:30 p.m. Coffee With Your Congressman is a great opportunity to learn more about the resources my office offers and spend time with neighbors. This event is one of several meetings like this I will be hosting across MA-02, and I’m especially excited because it is the first time they will be hosted in-person since the pandemic began.

SATURDAY JUNE 4 and SUNDAY JUNE 5: Massachusetts Solidarity Economy Festival and Gathering.
(rain date June 11-12). A festival, fair, and teach-in a Global Village Farms in Grafton, MA. Registration, full schedule, more information.

TUESDAY JUNE 7: Northampton Jazz Workshop With Vibraphonist Warren Chiasson and the Green Street Trio. The Drake, 44 North Pleasant Street. 7:30 p.m. Free (donations apprecited) Doors open at 5 p.m. Full listing of June events at The Drake.

SATURDAY JUNE 11. March For Our Lives. Marches in Washington D.C. and in hundreds of cities around the nation to protest gun violence and to demand sane, effective gun policy. More information, find a march near you or register a new march.

SATURDAY JUNE 11 Community Days at Fort River Farm Community Gardens: 2:00 PM - 4:00 PMFort River Farm Conservation Area – behind the Verite Building off of Belchertown Road. These “Community Days” are hosted by the Fort River Garden Circle, a group of volunteers, Healthy Hampshire, and Conservation Department staff that have been hard at work getting the garden ready. Come to one of the Community Days to: Talk to current volunteers and decide if you’d like to apply for a garden plot. Help out with garden tasks that need to be done. Get a tour of the garden area. More information: Clarke Bankert, cbankert@collaborative.org, 413-588-5581 Stephanie Ciccarello, ciccarellos@amherstma.gov, (413) 259-3149

SUNDAY JUNE 12 – 40th Annual Lake Wyola Road Race and Walk. 4.8 miles around scenic Lake Wyola. 1.6 mile fun run for kids 12 and under. Just past the state beach at 6 Shore Drive, Shutesbury. Come for the run/walk and stay for the beach. 9:30 a.m with registration open at 8:30 a.m. Come and help us restart this event after a two year COVID-induced hiatus. More Information.

TUESDAY JUNE 14: Amherst Police and Community Responders (CRESS) Joint Public Forum. Bangs Community Center, 6-8 p.m. What is CRESS? How will this new department impact police service? Amherst is welcoming in a new public safety department called the Community Responders for Equity, Safety, and Service (CRESS). Its focus is on mental health and the CRESS department will complement the Police Department in its efforts to best serve the community. Meet with Police Chief Scott Livingstone and CRESS Director Earl Miller to learn how these departments are different and the ways in which they’re working together towards a greater goal of making Amherst a better place to live.

WEDNESDAY JUNE 15: Groundbreaking For the North Amherst Library Renovation and Addition, 11 a.m. Behind the North Amherst Library, 8 Montague Road.

SATURDAY JUNE 18 and SUNDAY June 19: Juneteenth Weekend. Saturday: Heritage Walking Tour. Tour begins 11:00 a.m. at the West Cemetery on Triangle Street and ends at 5:00 p.m. at The Drake. A collaboration between Ancestral Bridges and the Amherst Historical Society Museum to celebrate Juneteenth in Amherst, MA. This walking tour explores the unique history and contributions of generations of Black families in Amherst curated and guided by descendants. Free and open to the public. Sunday: Jubilee on the Common. Music, food, and community beginning at noon.

ON LINE EVENTS
ONGOING: Annual ARHS Student Art Exhibit . The Art Department at Amherst Regional High School is proud to present AR[T]HS 2022, an online exhibitehibit of outstanding student artwork from the 2021-2022 school year. This juried exhibit,  – now in its 14th year,  – includes superlative work from all of the Art Department’s course offerings. The exhibit can be viewed here.

SUNDAY JUNE 5: District Meeting For Amherst’s District 4. 4:30 p.m. on Zoom. We have invited Mr. Earl Miller, the new director of CRESS, the Town’s brand new Community Responders for Equity, Safety, & Service department to introduce CRESS to you.  Alexandra Lefebvre asked to speak briefly about the Jones Library project. Zoom Link: https://amherstma.zoom.us/j/82817518512

Or One tap mobile : US: +13017158592,,82817518512#  or +13126266799,,82817518512#
Or Telephone: US: +1 301 715 8592  or +1 312 626 6799  or +1 646 876 9923
Webinar ID: 828 1751 8512

THURSDAY JUNE 9: Community Forum On The New Elementary School Building Plans. 6:30-9:00 p.m. on Zoom. Hear an overview, ask questions, and comment on: Construction phasing for concepts and sites, Construction and project costs update, Input to the highest priorities. Zoom Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86119993876
Meeting ID: 861 1999 3876

SUNDAY JUNE 12: Amherst’s Celebration of Racy Amity Day. On Zoom. 4:00-5:30 p.m. Each year since 2015, Town Meeting, and now the Town Council, has issued a Proclamation declaring the 2nd Sunday of June as Race Amity Day! The event is to be co-sponsored by the Citizens for Racial Amity Now! (CRAN), the Amherst Town Council, the League of Women Voters, the Interfaith Opportunities Network (ION), and the Amherst Baha’i Community. Race Amity Day recognizes that social and racial justice in our community depends on strengthening bonds of respect, caring and love across our ethnic and cultural identities. The reality is that there is only one human race. We are a single people inhabiting planet earth. It is a time to raise our consciousness of what it means to recognize and act on the truth of the Oneness of Humankind. Join us as we celebrate with the reading of the Proclamation, music, dance and special guest speakers. Learn more: https://raceamity.org/ or. More Information. Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83455817713?