December 17, 2024: Getting the gang together

Today is about togetherness. Yes, every day is about togetherness, but let's not digress. We're bringing folx together through one of the newest holidays on the block: Kwanzaa. After learning about the holiday's origins with prof. Ousmane Power-Greene, we're all eager to find places where we might celebrate festivities locally. Luckily for us, the Kwanzaa Collective has a full week of activities planned up and down the 91 corridor that you can participate in. We chat with Ayanna Crawford and UMass Amherst professor Amilcar Shabazz about the local importance of Kwanzaa and what the collective has planned for you to join in with them. It's also in bringing a pile of your talented friends together. We continue our preview of the bands you can catch at First Night Northampton with the supergroup All Feels. Headed by Candace Clement, and including Kate and Noah Dowd, Jon Shina, and Will Meyer, who between them also represent more than 10 other local bands, have joined forces to bring sounds hovering between lo-fi pop, indie rock and basement jams to life through lyrics fueled by introspection, longing and somewhat sarcastic assessments of modern life, both in performance, and their debut EP: "This Place is a Message".And it's in the folx encouraging you from the sidelines. We try some of the tastiest granola around with Chelsea Beaudry of Sweet Babu in Chicopee, and hear the story of how a hobby grew from her kitchen, to farmer's markets, to a full blown wholesale operation right here in the 413.