The band Meninos de Minas performed an outstanding concert on April 28. In the audience, dozens of people danced. The concert was free, outdoors, and in Hartford. It was the second year that the band played at the annual Samba Fest in Hartford. Hartford is about 30 minutes from Springfield by train. Next month those trains will get much cheaper and much more frequent, thanks to the work of activists in Northampton who have a web site at www.TrainsInTheValley.org.

In a win for activists who fight for affordable housing, downtown Brattleboro will get a new apartment building. “This project will provide beautiful new homes for folks wanting to live close to all the amenities available in downtown Brattleboro," Elizabeth Bridgewater told the Valley Post on March 8. She runs the non-profit group that will build the housing. Bridgewater's group has a web site at www.w-wht.org.

The building will be constructed at 23 Flat Street, which is now a vacant lot, and will have about two dozen apartments.

As of March 7, more than 400 people had RSVP'd to a Northampton march for gun control that is planned for March 24. The march will start at noon at Northampton High School and end at city hall. More information is at:

www.facebook.com/events/170576480247420

As of March 7, more than 130 people had RSVP'd to a Keene march for the same cause, on the same day at 10 a.m., starting at Central Square. Details are at:

www.facebook.com/events/1351988534907262

Forest protectors in New Hampshire had a win, while their colleagues in the Pioneer Valley took on a new battle. On February 1 state regulators heeded activists' demands and rejected a plan to clearcut thousands of acres of New Hampshire forest to make way for a power line known as the Northern Pass. Native Americans in Canada had fought the plan too: the power was to come from dams that flooded their forestland. They have a web site at www.pessamit.ca. The electricity would have gone to Boston.

More than 700 people had RSVP'd for the Women's March in Northampton as of December 27. The march is set for January 20, 2018 at 11 a.m. Since the Valley Post first reported on the march, organizers have announced the route: it will start at Sheldon Fields and end at city hall.

The event is being organized by the same people who organized the January 2017 Women's March. That drew about 3,000 people to Northampton and 3,000 to a sister march in Greenfield. Photos of those events are below. The march organizers' partners included Planned Parenthood, the AFL-CIO, and 350.org.

About 130 nurses at a hospital in Westfield, Massachusetts have voted to authorize a strike. This does not necessarily mean they will go on strike; it means their elected union leaders have the power to call a strike. Westfield borders Holyoke. The nurses work at Noble hospital. They voted earlier this month.

In Northampton on August 13, hundreds of people attended a rally to protest racist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. The same day in Keene, about 60 people attended a rally for the same cause. On August 14, about 80 people attended a rally for the same cause in Greenfield. On August 15, dozens of people attended another rally for the same cause in Springfield.

In the Valley, eight people were arrested for non-violent civil disobedience and 184 acres of land were permanently protected from development. On June 24, eight people were arrested while protesting the construction of a fracked gas pipeline in Sandisfield, Massachusetts. Sandisfield is in the Connecticut river valley, about an hour by car west of Springfield.

On May 19 in Keene, there will be a celebration of the opening of a pedestrian/bicycle bridge that activists have worked for two decades to make happen. The bridge crosses Route 101, about 500 feet southeast of the Walmart. It's known as South Bridge. The below photos show another pedestrian/bicycle bridge in Keene – North Bridge – that looks almost exactly like the new one.

“South Bridge is a great addition to the city's trail system,” Phil Jones told the Valley Post. He is on the board of the group Pathways for Keene.

Dozens of people attended a rally in Northampton on April 9 to protest President Trump's military attack on Syria. Sabine Merz spoke at the rally. "The way to help Syria is to open our borders to them," she told the Valley Post. The event was outside city hall. It was organized by the American Friends Service Committee of Western Massachusetts www.afscwm.org.