When N.L. Dennis was singing in a recording studio with Toots and the Maytals, Bob Marley stopped by to listen. Marley praised Dennis's delivery. Today, Dennis lives in his native Jamaica and joins hundreds of Jamaicans who come to Vermont every summer in search of better paying work. Most of them work on vegetable farms and at apple orchards. Dennis works as a reggae musician.

On June 29 at noon, Dennis and the Thunderballs will play a free concert at the Putney, Vermont farmers' market. Putney is near Brattleboro. Donations are appreciated by the band.

About 13,000 people watched the Pride parade in Northampton on May 3. “About 2,000 people were registered in the parade,” Clay Pearson told the Valley Post on May 5. Pearson runs the group that organized the event. The group has a web site at:

www.HampshirePrideMA.com.

The Valley Post asked Pearson, “To what extent was this event a protest of Trump's policies?”

Pearson replied, “This year Hampshire Pride partnered with Northampton Resists to make a political rally the kick off event of our festival.”

About 2,000 people marched and rallied to protest Trump on April 19 in Northampton and other cities and towns in the Pioneer Valley, according to one of the groups that organized the events. The group has a web site at https://in-slwm.org. Photos and video of the marches and rallies are on the group's Facebook page.

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In Brattleboro on May 1, there will be a workers' rights march, starting at 5 p.m. outside 193 Main Street. Details are at:

https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/780852/

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In the Pioneer Valley town of Williamsburg, two land trusts are working to protect a 288 acre defunct golf course from development. If they succeed it will go back to being a forest. The land trusts need donations and volunteers. Details are on the Facebook page of one of the groups, Hilltown Land Trust. The other group is the Trustees of Reservations.

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About 2,000 people marched in the rain April 5 in Brattleboro to protest Trump. One of the groups that promoted the event has a web site at:

www.BiologicalDiversity.org

The Valley Post has posted many photos in the past but our "content management system" (Drupal) is not letting us post photos anymore. We are seeking donations to hire an expert to fix this problem. Meanwhile, the photos are at:

https://www.facebook.com/eeshawilliams/posts/pfbid02L5wsFkJdufkJcidwhuED...

In the Pioneer Valley town of South Hadley about 400 high school students walked out of classes on March 31 to protest public school funding cuts. The National Education Association (NEA) is the nation's biggest union, and a major donor to the Democratic party. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a Democrat and a member of congress from New York who, with Bernie Sanders, attracted 30,000 people to an anti-Trump rally in Colorado on March 21. Amy Foley is president of the NEA chapter in South Hadley. On April 1, she told the Valley Post that about 400 students took part in the protest.

In Northampton about 800 people attended an outdoor rally to protest Trump's policies, an organizer told the Valley Post. The goal was to resist fascism. “If you’re tired of the barrage of news and want to do something, you’re not alone! We strive to mobilize, and more events are coming!” according to the organizers' web page:

www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61572916231647#

The rally was on March 9. A photo is at:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=122117806232763874&set=pb.615729...

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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.