Steve Pfarrer

Northampton saxophonist and composer Sarah Manning and her trio kick off a summer series of shows in Easthampton produced by Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares. Manning performs July 5. Image courtesy Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares

Eavesdrop brings its “Americana folk-pop” sound to the Iron Horse in Northampton on June 28 in a shared bill with singer-songwriter Grayson Ty. Image from Eavesdrop website

Fresh on the heels of Django in June, Northampton’s annual celebration of jazz manouche and Django Reinhardt, Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares has organized its own summer jazz series for July, both to say “thank you” to supporters and to give local...

The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art has displayed the work of dozens and dozens — or more likely hundreds — of illustrators and writers over the years, in solo exhibits and group shows.Among them have been a fair number of artists from other...

After generating some local news in 2022 when scenes were filmed in a number of locations around the Valley, “Janet Planet,” the debut film by celebrated playwright Annie Baker, made its deThursday.The movie, first screened last summer at the...

The ups and downs of reporting: Steve Pfarrer once had an interview with Jeff Daniels that began on what seemed an unpromising note but ended well. Photo by Montclair Film/Wikipedia

Journeys of Voices & Choices By Ernie Brill Human Error Publishing

In the early 1990s, I answered an ad for a reporting job at the Gazette. I had editorial experience — I’d worked as a copywriter, a copy editor, and a proofreader — and I liked writing, but I’d never worked for a newspaper, unless you counted a few...

Pickett’s Dream By Christopher Carlisle Austin Macauley Publishers

David Daley at his home in Haydenville. His newest book, “Antidemocratic: Inside the Far Right’s 50-Year Plot to Control American Elections,” takes a deep dive into the extended effort by Republican activists, strategists and politicians to stack the nation’s courts with conservative judges and undo longstanding federal laws designed to ensure fair elections. GAZETTE FILE PHOTO