AMHERST — The Amherst Business Improvement District (BID) in collaboration with Amherst Recreation will hold the fifth annual Fire & Ice Festival + Luminaria on Saturday, Feb. 22, from 3 to 6 p.m. on the Amherst Common. This event marks the culmination of Amherst’s weeklong WinterFest and has become a highlight of the winter season, attracting over 2,000 attendees each year.
The event will feature a variety of activities, including:
Hot Cocoa, S’mores, & Fire Pits.
Ice Sculptures displayed throughout the Amherst Common, by Joe Almeida.
Winter Tie-Dye Crafting with Amherst Recreation.
Fire Arts Performance featuring a fire juggling performance by Matica Arts.
Metal Sculptures Demonstration: Witness live metal sculpting by local artist and Hampshire College alum Kamil Peters.
Wood Carving Demonstration: Observe Amherst resident Cody Stosz of Kodiak Carving showcase his wood carving skills.
Additionally, the Amherst Fire Department will be present with their fire truck, offering fire safety information and an opportunity to meet Sparky the Fire Pup.
For more information and updates, visit amherstdowntown.com and on social media @amherstdowntown.
AMHERST — LangMedia, the Five College Consortium’s online collection of learning resources focusing on less-commonly taught languages, has a new website. Funded by a grant from the Davis Educational Foundation, the redeveloped site offers free, high-quality language-learning tools in dozens of less-commonly taught languages.
For example, someone who wants to learn Twi, a language of Ghana, can watch a video in Twi of someone ordering fish in a market in the city of Accra and follow along with the Twi and English transcripts. Or a student of Urdu can access 60 detailed study guides designed for self-directed learning.
Thousands of online resources support the study of 46 languages on LangMedia, which are now much more easily navigated in the website. More new resources will be added in the upcoming months, including course syllabi in 10-plus additional languages.
Visit the website: langmedia.fivecolleges.edu
LangMedia was originally developed in the 1990s to offer videos, audio recordings, and other resources to support independent language learning. It’s become an important tool of the Five College Center for World Languages, which instructs hundreds of students each year from Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith colleges, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
AMHERST — The Ellsberg Initiative for Peace and Democracy will host a public lecture, “UMass to Sunrise: Building the Youth-Led Movement for Climate Justice,” with its 2025 activist-in-residence, Varshini Prakash, on Feb. 26, from 7 to 8:30 p.m., in the Old Chapel at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Prakash has been a leader in the climate movement for more than a decade and was a co-founder and the former director of the Sunrise Movement, which organized thousands of young people in the fight to stop climate change, create millions of good, union jobs, and build racial equity through a Green New Deal.
She is a UMass grad in the Class of 2015 where she was involved with the fossil fuel divestment campaign. As part of her residency, Prakash will be on campus Feb. 24-28, and will visit with departments and classes, hold office hours, and lead a workshop for student activists.
Her public lecture will offer insights on building the climate justice movement and responding to the current political moment.
The Ellsberg Initiative for Peace and Democracy is inspired by the life and legacy of Daniel Ellsberg (1931-2023), the legendary whistleblower who released the Pentagon Papers to the press and public in 1971. In 2019, UMass Amherst acquired Ellsberg’s voluminous papers. They are archived at the Robert S. Cox Special Collections and University Archives Research Center, widely known for its world-renowned holdings chronicling activism for peace, democracy, and social justice.
For more information please visit our website: www.eipad.org.
New art exhibitions
at UMass
The University Museum of Contemporary Art at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has two spring exhibitions opening this Friday, Feb. 14.
“Is anything the matter? Drawings by Laylah Ali” features 100 drawings that examine “the amalgam of race, power, gendering, human frailty and murky politics,” according to a press release.
“They range from colorful imaginative portraits to comic-inspired scenarios that comment on everything from racial violence to gender politics in contemporary society. They are equal parts playful and profound. I look forward to the conversations they inspire and the connections they will make to courses across the university,” Karen Kurczynski, professor of contemporary and modern art in the UMass History of Art and Architecture Department, said in the release.
The other exhibition, “High Five/Take Five,” features five artworks from the museum’s permanent collection, made by artists Sanford Biggers, Shirazeh Houshiary, Richard Yarde, Allora & Calzadilla, and Christian Boltanski.
The museum is free and open to the public.
‘Cat in the Hat’
license plates
So here’s the big news:
The Cat in the Hat
Is now on a license plate —
How about that!
If you live in our state
And you have your own car,
You can ride with the Cat.
You two can go far!
You can get yours online.
At the RMV, too.
The choice is all yours.
They’re waiting for you!
Each plate’s 40 bucks
(plus a few other fees)
But the money helps kids
Who are learning to read.
If you have any questions
Or want to know more,
email seussplates@springfieldmuseums.org.