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I did ketamine therapy … and here’s what happened: A one-time tripper takes a second psychedelic journey 50 years later

I did ketamine therapy … and here’s what happened: A one-time tripper takes a second psychedelic journey 50 years later

By Bob Flaherty For the Valley Advocate A gamechanger, they call it. A chance to face the challenges of your life head on. To free your mind, unencumbered by old negative patterns. Empowering your life. Re-setting your brain. Though it’s been around for decades,...
Monte Belmonte Wines: Aging wine is a lost art, even with us wine snobs

Monte Belmonte Wines: Aging wine is a lost art, even with us wine snobs

By Monte Belmonte For the Valley Advocate Aging wine is a lost art. It’s lost on me and I’m a self-described wine snob. I have exactly two bottles of wine in my “wine cellar.” It’s actually not a cellar at all. It’s a room off of my living room where I keep my tools...
‘You don’t look like a doctor’: Documentary film looks at the biases and challenges Black women physicians face

‘You don’t look like a doctor’: Documentary film looks at the biases and challenges Black women physicians face

By STEVE PFARRER Staff Writer Dr. Khama Ennis had come a long way in her medical career. Until 2022, the Amherst resident had spent about two decades in emergency medicine, including a number of years as chief of emergency medicine at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in...
Bridging a gap of understanding: Month-long visual arts and performance festival, “A Stone’s Throw,” examines the experiences of military veterans and their families

Bridging a gap of understanding: Month-long visual arts and performance festival, “A Stone’s Throw,” examines the experiences of military veterans and their families

By STEVE PFARRER Staff Writer Though she was too young to understand many details at the time, Mollye Maxner remembers the Vietnam War had a profound effect on her family. Her father, Steve Maxner, served as a combat medic in the war and endured emotional turmoil from...
Theater Matters with Jarice Hanson: The best of the Berkshires: Two plays with two different styles give audiences Broadway-quality productions, plus what’s on stage for spooky season

Theater Matters with Jarice Hanson: The best of the Berkshires: Two plays with two different styles give audiences Broadway-quality productions, plus what’s on stage for spooky season

By JARICE HANSON For the Advocate With the summer season winding down and “transition time” — both in terms of the seasons and the local theater offerings —  ramping up, two plays stand out as “the best of the best.” Donald Margulies’ newest (and perhaps his best)...
Take a day trip to a modernist paradise: The Frelinghuysen Morris Home & Studio in Lenox provides a splendid view of two groundbreaking artistic lives

Take a day trip to a modernist paradise: The Frelinghuysen Morris Home & Studio in Lenox provides a splendid view of two groundbreaking artistic lives

By DON STEWART For the Advocate A short drive from downtown Lenox, you travel past ornamental wrought iron gates and enter into the former Gilded Age estate of “Brookhurst.” You’re first greeted by a voluptuous two-and-a-half-ton reclining female figure sculpted by...
Time to swing: Jazz drummer and South Hadley native Joe Farnsworth returns to the Valley for a concert honoring his idol, Max Roach

Time to swing: Jazz drummer and South Hadley native Joe Farnsworth returns to the Valley for a concert honoring his idol, Max Roach

By STEVE PFARRER Staff Writer Joe Farnsworth was 10 or 11 when he got the chance to meet a drumming legend: Max Roach. It was at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in 1979, where Roach taught. Farnsworth, who grew up in South Hadley, remembers how one of his...