Welcome to Historic Northampton
Exhibition Hours: Wednesday - Saturday, 12 noon to 4 pm
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Upcoming EventsSee Events Calendar
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Northampton Night Fest 2025
Tuesday, April 22, 2025 | 8 to 9:30 pm
(Rain/cloud date: Saturday, April 26, 2025, 8:00-9:30 pm)
(Rain/cloud date: Saturday, April 26, 2025, 8:00-9:30 pm)
On the Grounds of Historic Northampton
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Join us for the third annual Northampton Night Fest in celebration of International Dark Sky Week 2025. Learn about the night sky from astronomer James Lowenthal, followed by a mix of stargazing and night-time exploring in and around Historic Northampton.
We will observe together the profound changes nature undergoes every 24 hours: the sights, sounds, smells, and sensations of the temperature falling; the wind shifting; animals from birds to mammals to insects around us heading for sleep or waking up for a night’s activity; and, if weather permits, the stars coming out. Special guest Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra will read the City’s proclamation recognizing April 21-28, 2025 as International Dark Sky Week 2025. All are welcome, including families with children. Rain/cloud date: Saturday, April 26, 8:00-9:30 pm Free. No registration required. |
Join us on the grounds of Historic Northampton for Northampton Night Fest 2025 coordinated by Northampton City Lights in partnership
with Historic Northampton. |
Lesbians of Color Oral History Panel
Film Screening & Panel Discussion
Film Screening & Panel Discussion
Moderated by Erika Slocumb with participants from the Lesbians of Color Oral History Project
Wednesday, April 30, 2025 at 6 pm
Due to popular demand, this event has been moved to
Graham Hall, Hillyer Art Building, Smith College, Elm Street, Northampton, MA.
Seating is first come, first seated. Limit 100 seats.
Graham Hall, Hillyer Art Building, Smith College, Elm Street, Northampton, MA.
Seating is first come, first seated. Limit 100 seats.
Marching with the banner for
De Colores: Lesbians of Color Western MA, circa 1994. Photo courtesy of Marcel Walters.
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Join Erika Slocumb and members of Northampton's community of lesbians of color, Pippa Flemming and Marcel Walters, as they discuss the history of Northampton’s queer community and the historic organization, De Colores.
Historic Northampton will screen De Colores: Defining Kinship, Finding Peace, a short documentary film telling the story of the community created by Black lesbians who came to Northampton, Massachusetts, in the 1970s and 1980s to live, work, and love. Slocumb will then discuss Historic Northampton's recent Lesbians of Color Oral History project, followed by a panel discussion from participants in the project and an open Q&A with the community. Bookends Florence will be in attendance selling books on local lesbian history. Free and open to the public. First come, first seated. Seating capacity is 100. |
Acknowledging Indigenous history
Acknowledging Indigenous History
Here, we acknowledge that we stand on Indigenous land, inhabited by Native American people for roughly 11,000 years, since the glaciers receded. This place that we now call Northampton was known to Native people as Nonotuck or Norwottuck. Nonotuck homelands stretched across both sides of the Kwinitekw (now called the Connecticut River), including the present-day towns of Amherst, Hadley, Hatfield, South Hadley, Northampton, and Easthampton.
Nonotuck people were closely connected, through trade, diplomacy, and kinship, to other Native communities in the region: the Quaboag in present-day Brookfield; the Agawam in present-day Springfield; the Woronoco in present-day Westfield; the Pocumtuck in present-day Deerfield; and the Sokoki in present-day Northfield. During the early 1600s, these Native groups engaged in reciprocal trade relations with English colonial settlers and with other Native nations. By the late 1600s, however, the pressures of colonial warfare forced many Native families to relocate, taking shelter in other Native territories. We offer condolences for the Nonotuck people who were forced to leave their homeland, while also offering gratitude for the Native communities that took them in.
Despite the loss of land due to colonial settlement, a number of Native nations have persisted across the territory that we now call “New England.” These include: the Nipmuc to the East; the Wampanoag and Narragansett to the Southeast; the Mohegan, Pequot, and Schaghticoke to the South; the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican to the West; and the Abenaki to the North, among others. Recognizing that the entirety of the North American continent constitutes Indigenous homelands, we affirm, honor, and respect the sovereignty of these and hundreds of other Indigenous Native American and First Nations peoples who survive today.
Learn More
Nonotuck people were closely connected, through trade, diplomacy, and kinship, to other Native communities in the region: the Quaboag in present-day Brookfield; the Agawam in present-day Springfield; the Woronoco in present-day Westfield; the Pocumtuck in present-day Deerfield; and the Sokoki in present-day Northfield. During the early 1600s, these Native groups engaged in reciprocal trade relations with English colonial settlers and with other Native nations. By the late 1600s, however, the pressures of colonial warfare forced many Native families to relocate, taking shelter in other Native territories. We offer condolences for the Nonotuck people who were forced to leave their homeland, while also offering gratitude for the Native communities that took them in.
Despite the loss of land due to colonial settlement, a number of Native nations have persisted across the territory that we now call “New England.” These include: the Nipmuc to the East; the Wampanoag and Narragansett to the Southeast; the Mohegan, Pequot, and Schaghticoke to the South; the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican to the West; and the Abenaki to the North, among others. Recognizing that the entirety of the North American continent constitutes Indigenous homelands, we affirm, honor, and respect the sovereignty of these and hundreds of other Indigenous Native American and First Nations peoples who survive today.
Learn More
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