AMHERST — After two years being unable to turn downtown Amherst into a pedestrian mall with food and entertainment, the Amherst Business Improvement District is bringing back the block party.
The Amherst BID Block Party returns Thursday, Sept. 15, from 5 to 9 p.m., when a section of North Pleasant Street will be closed off by the Department of Public Works and Amherst police.
During the all-ages event, a stage will be set up at the top of North Pleasant, near Amity Street, with Mister G performing from 5 to 6 p.m., followed by the Soul Magnets from 7 to 8:30 p.m.
A Kids Place will be at Realignment Park, near Hallock Street, that will include face painting with Nikki, balloon animals with Ollie the Clown, and yo-yo arts with the Yo-Yo People.
Show Circus will stage aerial acrobatics, stilt walkers, jugglers “in a box” and contortionists, while local dance acts and kung fu demonstrations will be done by Center Dance, Duffy Academy and Shaolin Kung Fu.
Among the restaurants with food for sale will be Hazel’s Kitchen, Arigato’s, Taste of India, Momo’s, Bistro 63, Coronation Café, and Antonio’s and The Humble Peach, with a beer garden put on by White Lion Brewery.
In addition, the Drake music house will have an open house featuring Frozen Corn, Spectre Folk, Wes Buckley and DJ Chris Dooley.
Amherst’s health team, including Health Director Jennifer Brown and nurse Olivia Lara-Cahoon, will join Town Manager Paul Bockelman at his next Cuppa Joe event.
The conversation on Sept. 15 at 8:30 a.m. at the Large Activity Room at the Bangs Community Center will cover continued immunization efforts and the availability of free rapid COVID-19 tests.
Brianna Sunryd, director of Communications & Civic Innovation, said the town’s efforts to inform residents about the presence of COVID-19 are continuing with the wastewater surveillance, with results and trends regularly posted to the town website.
“It’s another way to see what’s happened as people come back to the area following being away for the summer,” Sunryd said.
Kwench Juice Cafe, an organic juice bar with products locally sourced, will be coming to 19 North Pleasant St., the former site of Glazed Doughnut, this fall.
The menu at Kwench, which has several franchises in the Northeast, includes raw juices, raw smoothies and acai and pitaya bowls.
The local franchise is run by Janice Samson and Chandra Hart, who recently received a common victualler’s license from the Board of License Commissioners.
The Leverett Village Co-op’s last Artisans Market takes place Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. at the 180 Rattlesnake Gutter Road site in the Moore’s Corner section of town.
The final outdoor market of the season will have live music performed by classic rock band Isosceles, and 18 vendors will be selling items including hand-carved wooden bowls, quilts and quilted bowl cozies and dried floral arrangements.
Local food writer Claire Hopley will be selling her signed cookbooks and there will also be massage therapy and tarot card readings. The nonprofit Youthline will be selling items handmade in Malawi to raise funds, which help children in the African nation pay for school fees. DJ Brian Boyles will be spinning records.
The Elaine Marieb Center for Nursing and Engineering Innovation at the University of Massachusetts is holding a symposium examining up-to-date innovations in the health care industry, particularly those created by nurses and engineers in collaborative research.
To be held Tuesday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Student Union Ballroom, the symposium is expected to be an annual event.
This symposium will help attendees understand the nurse-engineer role in creating solutions that advance patient care, including the center’s innovation initiatives on health care robotics and IV smart pumps. Nurses and engineers will learn about the center’s accomplishments and seed grant projects and nurse-engineer innovations, and they will have the opportunity to network and exchange ideas.
Registration online is free for UMass students, faculty, staff and alumni and for those at other academic institutions. The cost is $25 for community members.
MONDAY: Amherst Cultural Council, 6 p.m., and Town Council, 6:30 p.m.
TUESDAY: Public Shade Tree Committee, 5:30 p.m., Amherst Municipal Affordable Housing Trust, 6:30 p.m.