Best CELEBRATING THE 2025 BEST OF THE VALLEY READERS’ POLL WINNERS ...

Acclaimed folk-blues singer-songwriter Chris Smither, who lives in Amherst, never expected to be cast in a Netflix movie — and he certainly never expected to be part of a project that won an Oscar.

Despite certain advances in medieval historiography, there is still a general assumption that the middle ages were a period of despair, a time when the innovations of the Roman Empire crumbled, a ...

As a nimble alternative weekly newspaper with an eager and talented staff, we invest time developing stories about people, places and topics that the mainstream media doesn’t have the time or, in some ...

Brooklyn-based artist Finnegan Shannon, who is disabled, has often wondered what it would be like to experience art without limitations. Shannon, who has trouble standing and walking and experiences ...

Some of the thousand items in Aaron Damon-Rush’s collection of Ant-Man and the Wasp figures and comic books. CAROL LOLLIS / Staff Photo Some of the thousand items in Aaron Damon-Rush’s collection of ...

Springfield, Massachusetts, was a big abolitionist hub during the days of the Underground Railroad — not that many people know this. When talking about Massachusetts history, Western Mass isn’t well ...

“Emily’s mission in life is to teach women to live with confidence and joy inside their bodies.” This sentence mesmerized me. Ryan Lash/TED Emily Nagoski speaks at TED 2018. It’s an assured statement ...

Alex Morse has a new pup — a goldendoodle that answers to Oliver. Can you say inseparable? The Holyoke mayor brought him home from Pennsylvania and claims that the quarantine has afforded him a bit ...

PEXELS/Lisa Fotios No matter how hard I think about it, I can’t dream up a plausible public health or safety rationale for dividing the market between tobacco sellers, alcohol sellers, and weed ...

The eighteenth century preacher and theologian Jonathan Edwards wrote on any paper he could find. In Northampton and later in Stockbridge, he made extensive notes on a version of the Bible with large, ...

Writing a book about the deeply painful and complex history of the n-word is a significant undertaking, as is writing a memoir about a complicated relationship with one’s father. For Smith College ...