Columnist Karen Gardner: Two more years

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

For close to 40 years, BagDay® has not only kicked off the holiday shopping season – it’s become a festive and cheery event that brings together families and friends from across generations. Held on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, the First BagDay® was inaugurated in 1988. Businesses and restaurants will again be teeming with shoppers during […]

South Hadley Police Chief Jennifer Gundersen to retire in December

SOUTH HADLEY — Police Chief Jennifer Gundersen will retire on Dec. 28, ending a 32-year-long career in law enforcement. Town Administrator Lisa Wong broke the news during a Select Board meeting on Tuesday night. Gundersen’s retirement was brought up during her last contract negotiations, so Wong said she “knew this was coming.” “This is going […]

Trusts conserve 202-acre Dudleyville Forest in Shutesbury

SHUTESBURY — A 202-acre site known as the Dudleyville Forest is being permanently protected as wildlands by the Kestrel Land Trust and the Northeast Wilderness Trust, a regional land trust. The completed project, located off Montague Road, represents the latest collaboration between the two organizations, and came together with $175,000 from the Healey-Driscoll Administration’s Acquisition […]

Arts briefs: 'Barbara Forever' screening, a new 'Hamlet' adaptation and Aaron Lee Tasjan

‘Barbara Forever’ screening Amherst Cinema will host a screening of Brydie O’Connor’s movie “Barbara Forever,” about pioneering lesbian filmmaker Barbara Hammer, on Thursday, Nov. 12, at 7 p.m. O’Connor will take part in a post-film discussion with editor Matt Hixon and producer Elijah Stevens. Per the event listing, “Through the course of the film, Barbara shows us that the personal is not only political, the personal is historical. Looking to Barbara as one of the first filmmakers to put a lesbian life on screen that wasn’t there before, her work becomes a blueprint for a new generation of queer and radical […]

UMass professor Harley Erdman to present illuminated lecture on 'Queen Esther'

Four centuries ago, a Spanish play about a famous Bible story got its author thrown in jail for heresy. Later this month, a local playwright will help give the play justice by telling it in an uncommon form of theater. Harley Erdman, a playwright, translator, dramaturg and professor of theater at the University of Massachusetts […]