AMHERST — “Community Heart & Soul,” a new Amherst initiative, begins with the “Table to Table” community dinner on Nov. 6.
The meal, which will run from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Bangs Community Center, will feature food from local businesses and is an opportunity for those who come to connect with neighbors to reflect on what they value most about Amherst, imagine the future and
collaborate on how to achieve it.
Registration is required by going to amherstma.gov/Heart-and-Soul-Dinner.
The project will build on the work done by the Community Safety Working Group and the Liberatory Visioning process led by Barbara Love, and will continue the town’s commitment to equity, inclusion and community engagement.
“Amherst residents have already spoken up, telling the town what they need, what they
envision and what changes they believe are necessary,” said Bonnie Isman, a Community
Heart & Soul Core team member who previously served as the Jones Library director.
The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Department wll be assisting in starting up the initiative, said Director Pamela Nolan Young. “The aim of this project is to bring Amherst community members, organizations, and businesses together to collectively solve previously identified concerns,” she said.
“Nationwide we’re facing the worst divisiveness we’ve ever seen,” said JuPong Lin, another team member and local interdisciplinary artist. “Community Heart & Soul hopefully provides an opportunity to gather and share our stories and work through our differences together.”
Tonika Reed-Prempeh, project coordinator for Amherst Community Heart & Soul, said the hope is the initiative will eventually grow into the Amherst Community Action Network. “By bringing people together now, we can create a lasting network of mutual support for when our neighbors need one another,” Reed-Prempeh said.
The initiative is funded by a $10,000 Community Heart & Soul Seed Grant awarded to the town.
Election Day
Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday for the state election.
In the lead-up to the election, voters have had opportunities to vote by mail, to vote absentee and to vote early.
Amherst Town Clerk Amber Martin said about 100 people a day were participating in in-person early voting.
Following are the locations for early voting. Precinct 1-A will be at North Amherst Library, 8 Montague Road; Precinct 1-B at Immanuel Lutheran Church, 867 North Pleasant St.; Precincts 2-A, 2-B, 3-A, 4-A and 4-B at Amherst Regional High School, 21 Mattoon St.; Precinct 3-B at Crocker Farrm School, 280 West St.; Precinct 5-A at Bangs Community Center, 30 Boltwood Walk; and Precinct 5-B at Munson Memorial Library, 1046 South East St.
Pickleball tournament
Registration is open for the third annual Friends of the Jones Libraries Pickleball Tournament to be held Nov. 15 at Hatfield Rally House.
In partnership with Fitness Together and 25 other sponsors, the Friends will use proceeds from the event to support programming and services at the Jones Library and its branches.
Kelly Erwin, a Friends board member and organizer, said the event will feature competition for those 18 and over, with prizes for first and second place in each division, refreshments throughout the day, and free raffle prizes and gifts
“This is a tournament where every point makes an impact, and your paddle has the power to improve lives,” added Martin Miller, also a tournament organizer
For more information and to register by Saturday, go to www.joneslibrary.org/pickleball
Reflecting on Amherst childhood
During a recent appearance on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, actress Uma Thurman recounted her first run-in with law enforcement, from a time when her family had just moved to Amherst in the early 1970s.
Thurman said she had seen red high-heeled shoes while driving by a shoe store and decided to return the next day, from her Amherst College faculty housing. She took 75 cents off the table, got to the store and tried on the shoes and then tried, unsuccessfully, to use the coins as payment.
Police were called by a store employee, but because she was only 3 or 4 at the time, she didn’t know where her home was located.
“I remember it so well because I’d never been so scared in my life because I really thought I was getting arrested, and I sort of was,” Thurman said.
She was held on the lap of an officer in the back of the squad car, and was reunited with her mother when she was what Thurman described as a “long-haired, beautiful hippy.”
Half Shell lecture series
The Amherst Historical Society is starting a new lecture series Nov. 4 called “History on the Half Shell” where a speaker will talk on the first Wednesday of each month at 6 p.m. at the Amherst Oyster Bar, 51 North Pleasant St.
Tickets are $12 and include a drink and 15% discount on a meal.
The first talk will be Eric Ross, a doctoral candidate in history at the University of Massachusetts, who will be discussing “The Atomic Age and the Rise of AI: New Technology, Old Problems.”
On Dec. 2, Becca Lo Presti, also a doctoral student at UMass, will present “Champoo Baths, Morphine Cough Syrup, and Vegetable Remedies: Historic Alternative Medicine and Why It Matters Today.” Then, on Feb. 2, Keenan Davis will give a presentation on the role of alcohol in the Jewish Resistance during the Holocaust.
Fall Arts Night Plus
After a relaunch of Arts Night Plus in April, which brought about 80 people to various downtown locations, the Amherst Business Improvement District and Cultural District are staging a Fall Arts Night Plus Nov. 5.
Running from 5 to 8 p.m., businesses throughout downtown will transform into art galleries.
Meeting
MONDAY: Joint Town Council, School Committee, Jones Library trustees, Budget Coordinating Group and Finance Committee meeting, 6:30 p.m., Town Room, Town Hall.
