What’s Happening In Amherst?

You can help us make our events calendar more useful by sending us your listings and including contact information and/or a link for more information. Send 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 SATURDAY THROUGH NOVEMBER 5: SPECIAL EXHIBIT – BLACK AND AFRO-INDIGENOUS FAMILIES IN AMHERST. Amherst History Museum, 67 Amity Street. 11 a.m.- 3 p.m. Historic images of Amherst’s Black and indigenous families plus artifacts dating back to the pre-Emancipation era. More information

LAST FRIDAY OF EVERY MONTH : LAST FRIDAYS AT THE DRAKE POETRY SERIES HOSTED BY LYRICAL FAITH. 44 North Pleasant Street. Join us every last Friday of the month* for Last Fridays at The Drake hosted by Lyrical Faith for an unforgettable open mic and poetry night experience featuring award-winning spoken word artists from across the country. Come through 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 5PM. Early arrival is encouraged to get a slot on the sign-up sheet. The cover charge is $5 with a college ID or $10 general admission. More Information. Full Events Calendar at the Drake.

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 19- WEDNESDAY APRIL 3: FEINBERG LECTURE SERIES ON US IMPERIALISM – CONFRONTING EMPIRE. Events are online or hybrid. This free public lecture series brings together scholars, journalists, educators, writers, community organizers, and survivors of state violence to examine global histories of U.S. imperialism and anti-imperialist resistance.The series traces the history of U.S. imperialism from the conquest of North America to the creation of an overseas empire in the late 19th century and to the present day. It also offers a critical historical analysis of the various traditions and movements that have opposed U.S. empire, including Black radicalism, Marxism, revolutionary feminism, armed struggle, international solidarity, pacifism, and liberal, electoral, and diplomatic activism.  The series kicks off Monday, September 19 for the Keynote Address, US Policy In the Global South by Nobel Peace Laureate Dr. Rigoberta Menchú Tum, joined by journalists Vincent Bevins anAmy Goodman. 7 p.m. on Zoom.
Register here.
Full listing of series events and more information

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 30 -SUNDAY MAY 14: 60 YEARS OF COLLECTING -AN ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITION CELEBRATING THE UNIVERSITY MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART PERMANENT COLLECTION. Bottom Floor of the UMass Fine Arts Center. Look here for gallery hours and additional information. Free. The exhibit can be viewed on line here.

SATURDAY OCTOBER 1 – MONDAY OCTOBER 31: AMHERST SURVIVAL CENTER HIKE FOR HUNGER
What: Sign up as an individual or team. Registration is $25 and includes a 2022 Hike for Hunger t-shirt. Once you register, you’ll be prompted to set up your personal fundraising page. All the details are ready for you, but you are welcome to personalize your page. You can share your page with family and friends via email and Facebook. There is no fundraising minimum, but you will earn rewards for your fundraising efforts. You could win a Downtown Amherst Night Out gift basket, a private wine and cheese tasting hosted by Provisions, tickets to a UMass Hockey game, and more

Where: Anywhere, anytime. Set your own path, whether it’s hiking local peaks, walking your dog on a nearby trail, or even fishing for hunger! You can also join us on a group hike. Check out the hikes we have planned and reserve your spot today. 
More information.

FRIDAY OCTOBER 7 THROUGH SATURDAY OCTOBER 29. EXHIBIT – ACCORDION BOOKS BY LAURA HOLLAND AT GALLERY A3 In Deciphered Objects, Laura Holland explores the actual or imagined stories that animate seemingly ordinary objects like empty paper bags, an antique pickle fork, a colorful raincoat, and an old ceramic platter in a series of handmade accordion books. The exhibit opens at Gallery A3 28 Amity Street 1D on Friday, October 7 and runs through Saturday, October 29. There will be an opening reception on Thursday, October 6 from 5-7:00 p.m. and a free, online art forum on Thursday, October 20, at 7:30 p.m. More information and register for online art forum here.

SATURDAY OCTOBER 22: US MARINE BAND IN CONCERT. Tillis Hall, UMass Performing Arts Center, 7:30 p.m. Free tix required (max 4 per person). More information. Full schedule of fall UMass ticketed music events.

SATURDAY OCTOBER 22: FREE TRAINING ON THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT AND THE GENDER EQUALITY MOVEMENT. 3:30-5:00 p.m. at the First Churches of Northampton, 129 Main Street. The training is organized by Generation Ratify Amherst, Entitled, The Path to Enacting the Equal Rights Amendment: Crash Course, the training goes through the timeline of the Equal Rights Amendment, the gender equality movement, and our current-day steps! It is interactive and art-based. Registration and more information.

SATURDAY OCTOBER 22: JAN 6 JUSTICE: OUR FREEDOMS OUR VOTE RALLY. 12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. Northampton City Hall, 210 Main Street, Northampton. Trump and his allies engaged in a violent criminal conspiracy to overturn an election they lost. They knew their actions were illegal. They have shown they will break the law and engage in violence in order to gain and stay in power. They must be held accountable. We are calling for an end to the ongoing violent and criminal attacks on our freedoms. We must protect our elections – the voters, the election officials and a free and fair process. More Information

TUESDAY OCTOBER 25: MONA AWAD FROM RECENT WORK AT THE CHI THINK TANK. 7:00 p.m. ( Frost Library (2nd floor), Amherst College, Amherst.   Awad is author of  13 Ways Of Looking at a Fat Girl, which won the Amazon Best First Novel Award & the Colorado Book Award; Bunny, which won The Ladies of Horror Fiction Best Novel Award.   Her most recent novel, All’s Well, is now available in paperback.   For more information, see here.   N.B. Masks must be worn.

TUESDAY OCTOBER 25: TENOR SAXOPHONIST GRANT STEWART, THE NORTHAMPTON JAZZ WORKSHOP WITH THE GREEN STREET TRIO. 7:30 p.m. at The Drake, 44 North Pleasant Street. A free event. Donations accepted. Featured set followed by an open jam session. Grant Stewart was born in Toronto, Canada, on June 4, 1971, and moved to New York City at the age of nineteen studying with masters such as Donald Byrd and Barry Harris. He has performed internationally with Jimmy Cobb ,Harold Mabern, Louis Hayes ,Curtis Fuller, Renee Fleming, Clark Terry, Bob Mover, Etta Jones, Bill Charlap, Lewis Nash, Peter Washington, Brad Mehldau, Russell Malone, Larry Goldings, Peter
Bernstein, Harry Connick , Mickey Roker, Jimmy Lovelace, Cecil Payne, Dick Hymen, Herb Geller and was a member of the last Al Grey Sextet. Full listing of events at The Drake.

THURSDAY OCTOBER 27: AFRICAN HERITAGE REPARATIONS ASSEMBLY LISTENING SESSION. The African Heritage Reparation Assembly has scheduled a listening session open to all community members from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Hitchcock Center, 845 West Street. The session will begin with a brief speaking program, followed by a facilitated listening session that centers on Black and African heritage voices.  More information

THURSDAY OCTOBER 27: POET NATHAN MCCLAIN WILL READ FROM RECENT POETRY. 4 p.m. at the Hampshire College Library, Hampshire College, Amherst.   McClain is author of two volumes of poetry, < i>Scale, & the recent, Previously Owned.   McClain is assistant professor of creative writing & African American literary arts at Hampshire College.   His poems & prose have recently appeared or are forthcoming in New York Times Magazine, upstreet, American Poets, The Rumpus, & Hunger Mountain, among others.
THURSDAY OCTOBER 27: 28th ANNUAL AMHERST EDUCATION FOUNDATION TRIVIA BEE. 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium at the Amherst Regional Middle School! There will be pizza and snacks available for purchase, plus a raffle with lots of gift certificates to local restaurants and businesses. Teams can also come in costume and enter our costume contest. You must pre-register to play. Please visit bit.ly/trivia-bee22 to sign up your team or enter the raffle. More information

FRIDAY OCTOBER 28: CUPPA JOE WITH TOWN MANAGER PAUL BOCKELMAN AND SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT MIKE MORRIS. Join Amherst Town Manager Paul Bockelman and Amherst Regional Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Mike Morris for coffee and conversation, Friday, October 28, 2022 from 8:00 a.m to 9:30 a.m. at the Bangs Community Center Large Activity Room, 70 Boltwood Walk.All are welcome! Please bring your questions, comments, ideas, or just come to connect with fellow community members. Drop in any time. Refreshments will be available, or feel free to bring your own. 

SATURDAY OCTOBER 29: SKI AND WINTER GEAR SALE TO BENEFIT THE AMHERST HISTORY MUSEUM. One Day Only. 9 A.M. – 2 P.M. 67 Amity Street. Top quality winter gear for adults and children.
More info.

SATURDAY OCTOBER 29: FORT RIVER COMMUNITY GARDEN HARVEST FESTIVAL. Gardeners and interested community members are invited to join the Fort River Garden Circle to celebrate the harvest of the inaugural year of the Fort River Community Gardens in a fall festival from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Gardeners and non-gardeners are welcome. The schedule includes garden tours, food prepared by gardeners using harvested vegetables, pumpkin painting, culinary and medicinal dried herbs, a story circle, and visions for next year’s gardens. For those thinking of signing up for a plot for the coming season, this is an opportunity to meet members of the garden circle and to view the site. The Fort River gardens can be reached via the driveway at 44-48 Belchertown Road (Gil’s Auto and across from Cumberland Farms) and continuing beyond the fence to the Fort River Conservation Area. There is a designated parking area adjacent to the gardens. More information

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 3 – SATURDAY NOVEMBER 5: UMASS DANCE PRESENTS TOM VANCANTI’S REINTERPRETATION OF SCHEHERAZADE. 7:30 p.m. in the Totman Performance Lab, 30 Eastman Lane. Inspired by the original ballet by Mikhail Fokine and the lush score by Rimsky-Korsakov, Vacanti sought to recapture the grand spectacle of the original production through sets, costumes, video projections, and a cast of 27 dancers. However, Vacanti has based his adaptation on a different story from One Thousand and One Arabian Nights than the one used in the 1910 Ballet Russes production.The November ballet performances are based instead on Scheherazade’s story about King Yunan and Sage Duban, which includes similar elements of intrigue, deception, revenge and murder as the original tale.

Ticket prices are $25 for the general public, $15 for seniors, $5 for students, and free for UMass students. Tickets may be purchased at the Fine Arts Center Box Office, by phone at 413-545-2511, or online at www.fineartscenter.com/musicanddance. Free and secure parking in nearby lot 43 after 5 p.m.

ONLINE EVENTS

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 19- WEDNESDAY APRIL 3: Feinberg Lecture Series On US Imperialism: Confronting Empire Events are online or hybrid. This free public lecture series brings together scholars, journalists, educators, writers, community organizers, and survivors of state violence to examine global histories of U.S. imperialism and anti-imperialist resistance.The series traces the history of U.S. imperialism from the conquest of North America to the creation of an overseas empire in the late 19th century and to the present day. It also offers a critical historical analysis of the various traditions and movements that have opposed U.S. empire, including Black radicalism, Marxism, revolutionary feminism, armed struggle, international solidarity, pacifism, and liberal, electoral, and diplomatic activism.  The series kicks off Monday, September 19 for the Keynote Address, US Policy In the Global South by Nobel Peace Laureate Dr. Rigoberta Menchú Tum, joined by journalists Vincent Bevins and Amy Goodman. 7 p.m. on Zoom.
Register here.
Full listing of series events and more information

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 30 -SUNDAY MAY 14. 60 YEARS OF COLLECTING -AN ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITION CELEBRATING THE UNIVERSITY MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART PERMANENT COLLECTION. Bottom Floor of the UMass Fine Arts Center. Look here for gallery hours and additional information. Free. The exhibit can be viewed on line here.

TUESDAY NOVEMBER 1: FEINBERG LECTURE SERIES: US EMPIRE IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC – REPRESSION AND RESiSTANCE. 7 p.m. on Zoom.The UMass History Department’s Feinberg Series continues with “U.S. Empire in Asia and the Pacific: Repression and Resistance. The event will take place over Zoom, and contains presentations by Moon-Ho Jung of the University of Washington, Nerissa S. Balce of SUNY Stony Brook, and Brian Hioe, founding editor of New Bloom. The program will be moderated by Sigrid Schmalzer, Professor of History at UMass Amherst. Information and registration are available here.