Northampton, USA
Other Fun Stuff
Iron Horse
Like many university towns, Northampton hosts a lot of amazing bands. Since it's known to be such a queer destination, many lesbian-popular performers often play at the Iron Horse (Melissa Ferrick, Uh Huh Her, Ani Difranco, Jane Siberry and many others have performed there in the past year).
20 Center St.
Northampton
Mendenhall Center for the Performing Arts
The main performance venue for all productions coming out of Smith College, be it theatre, dance or music. Some of the performances are extremely professional and since this is a women's college, all performers are women.
Theatre T201
Smith College
Northampton
www.smith.edu/smitharts/calendar.html
Mural: The History of Women in Northampton From 1600 to 1980
Painted on the side of a building next to a parking lot off of Cracker Barrel Alley is a 3200 square foot mural depicting important women of Northampton's history going back to 1600. This mural was painted in 1980 by the Hestia Art Collective and updated in 2003 to include some more contemporary local heroes including Mary Clare Higgins, Northampton's openly-lesbian mayor (she's still serving today).
Cracker Barrel Alley
Northampton
Out For Reel Film Series
Here's your chance to see first-run LGBT films! Out For Reel hosts queer film nights every couple of months, so check their website for upcoming events.
Pioneer Valley Roller Derby league
Even tiny Northampton has its own roller derby league! What's even cooler is that they have both men's and women's teams. Besides the regular matches, they also host a number of events and a monthly "fresh meat" night where newbies can hit the track.
Smith College Museum of Art
"SCMA offers a strong collection of contemporary art by women, including paintings, sculpture and works on paper." The collection offers 19th and 20th century works by artists as diverse as Georgia O'Keefe and Janet Fish.
Smith College Museum of Art
Northampton
http://www.smith.edu/artmuseum/collections/women/
Smith College Poetry Center
Located on campus in Wright Hall, one of the highlights of the Center for me is being able to see the handwritten drafts of some of Sylvia Plath's poetry (she was a student at Smith in the 1950s and even wrote her autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar, on the university's "lovely-textured" pink paper). This very queer-positive and feminist space hosts a number of poetry events throughout the year.
Smith College
Northampton
www.smith.edu/poetrycenter/
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