On April 25, Allison Miller and her band will play a jazz concert at the Drake in Amherst. Miller played drums in the bands of Ani DiFranco and Natalie Merchant. Miller's current tour includes stops at the Village Vanguard, the oldest jazz club in New York City, and in Europe. The Amherst concert starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $28. You can see a Miller concert at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv8dg8hAuGI&ab_channel=AllisonMiller
In Brattleboro on March 2, about 175 people marched to protest Trump's policies. The march started outside 193 Main Street and ended at the food co-op. For more information, contact Dan Dewalt via https://rcpVermont.org. He helped promote the march. DeWalt told the Valley Post he's organizing a march to protest Trump's policies on March 14 at 5 p.m., starting outside 193 Main Street in Brattleboro. Sunset is at about 7 p.m. that day. The organizers of the March 2 march, and a similar march on February 21, referred the Valley Post to DeWalt. More about the February march is at:
In Brattleboro on March 2 there will be a march to protest Trump's policies. The march will start at noon outside 192 Main Street and will end at the food co-op. For more information, contact Dan Dewalt via https://rcpVermont.org.
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In the Pioneer Valley, on February 21 on the Gill-Turners Falls bridge on Route 2, about 20 people attended a rally to protest Trump's policies. The rallies will continue there every Friday at 4:30 p.m., according to a mass email from a group that has a web site at www.traprock.org.
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Lucinda Williams will play in Northampton on March 9 at 7 p.m. The venue is the Academy of Music. Tickets cost $71 to $82 including fees. A video of her performing one of her songs with a band is at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRtMZDJdIIU&ab_channel=LiveFromAustinTX
About 150 people marched in Brattleboro on February 17, despite extreme cold and deep snow along some of the route. They were protesting Trump's policies. Emilie Kornheiser of Brattleboro chairs the Vermont House Ways and Means committee. She wants to tax the rich and help the poor. She was at the march and helped promote it.
In Northampton and the Pioneer Valley town of Westfield, workers at Starbucks are forming a union. Since June 2024, Ari Vaccaro has worked at the Northampton Starbucks that's not inside Stop and Shop. “We get $15.49 an hour,” Vaccaro told the Valley Post in a voice phone interview on February 10. “We can't live in our town on that. The CEO of Starbucks makes $50,000 an hour.”
In Springfield a total of about 120 people attended protests on February 4 and 5. The goal was to get Democrats in congress to try to stop many or all of Trump's plans. “It was a success,” Wendy Penner told the Valley Post in a voice phone interview on February 6. She was one of the organizers of the second protest and she is part of the group Greylock Together. “There were about 60 people there even though it was really cold. Staff people from both our U.S. senators' offices were there. We told them we want the senators to disrupt what Trump is trying to do.
Baystate Medical Corporation is refusing to sign a union contract for visiting nurses in Springfield. The nurses are members of the Massachusetts Nurses Association union. The nurses care for immigrants and low income people in Springfield's North End and Forest Park neighborhoods.
Matt Haimovitz will play a concert in Amherst on Sunday, February 2 at 4 p.m. Tickets cost $15 in advance, $20 day of, and $5 for students. The venue is the Drake. His cello was made in 1710. You can see one of his concerts at:
About 200 people marched in Brattleboro. The event was organized by local resident Vera Riley, and by the Women's March, a national group.
“It was wonderful,” Riley told the Valley Post. “Mollie Burke, Isaac Evans-Frantz, and others spoke of alternative media; nuclear delusion; military budget in the trillions; Palestine; gun control; Black Lives Matter; bi, gay, trans, etc; and more. George Carville sent us off with a story from 1982 about the Ku Klux Klan's unsuccessful event at the gazebo where people sang 'We Shall Overcome.' Then George led us in singing to close.”