Read & Resist Fest Returns to Northampton in October
The event at Interlink Publishing in Northampton will feature over thirty social justice organizations, vendors, workshops, and performances.
The Third Annual Read & Resist Fest will take place on Saturday, October 3, 2026 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Interlink Publishing, located at 46 Crosby Street in Northampton. The event is an outdoor social justice and literary festival dedicated to what organizers call collective liberation. Masking is required, and a rain date of October 4 is scheduled.
Interlink Publishing, the only Palestinian-owned book publisher in the United States, hosts the festival to create space for community organizing and education. The festival will feature over thirty social justice organizations, a book sale, more than twenty vendors, children's activities, workshops, teach-ins, and music. Attendees can participate in screen printing, tie-dyeing, letter writing, and zine-making.
The festival began in 2024 as a collaboration between local organizers and Interlink Publishing. The first year drew over five hundred attendees, and the second year expanded with grant funding from the Northampton Arts Council and Interlink Foundation. Participating organizations include Western Mass Jewish Voice for Peace, Traprock Center for Peace and Justice, Demilitarize Western Mass, Gaza Soup Kitchen, and others.
Organizers said in a statement, "We wanted to create a physical space where people who believe in social justice and collective liberation could come together, learn, and organize. After the 2024 election, more people have realized that injustice and oppression have been happening right here in our communities."
The schedule includes performances and talks throughout the day. At 10 a.m., Songs of Liberation, a Boston-based protest folk band led by Palestinian American Juliet Salameh, will perform. At 11 a.m., Jacob Kramer will discuss his new book Wandermelon. At 1 p.m., Rhonda Roumani and Michel Moushabeck will present an Arabic Music Storytime featuring Roumani's picture book Insha'Allah, No, Maybe So. At 2 p.m., Diana Sierra Becerra, a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, will discuss her book The Making of Revolutionary Feminism in El Salvador. At 3 p.m., Harriet Malinowitz will discuss her book Selling Israel: Zionism, Propaganda, and the Uses of Hasbara.