The Obie-winning play by Eve Ensler, "The Vagina Monologues," returns to Amherst for the sixth straight year. This year's performances will contain some of Ensler's original material, along with material written by Amherst students. The play is intended to encourage positive images of women and rallies against both sexual and domestic violence. The play will be organized, directed and performed by Amherst students, and will feature poetry, songs and testimonials. This year's profits will go to the New England Learning Center for Women in Transition, a program for women who are victims of either sexual or domestic abuse, as well as Nuestras Hijas de Regresso a Casa, a group of mothers and families of victims of the missing and killed women in Juarez, Mexico. (Thurs., Fri. and Sat., 8 p.m., Cole Assembly Room. $3 for students, $5 for faculty and the general public. Tickets at Valentine or at 542-8180.)

The six-piece Western Massachusetts-based band Apparatticus will take the stage in Northampton. Having opened for such bands as Dispatch and The Virginia Coalition, the band blends funk, hip-hop and jazz, and mixes of original tunes with carefully chosen covers infused with the group's unique style. Several of the group members attended Amherst Regional High School. (Fri., 8:30 p.m., The Pearl Street Nightclub, Northampton. Tickets $14 at the door or $11 in advance at 584-7771.)

Looking for a good time on Valentine's Day? Spend the evening at UMass with a bunch of women in the nude ... or, rather, a group of five guys from Toronto who like to call themselves the Barenaked Ladies. This comic folk-pop band released a new album last year titled "Everything to Everyone." (Sat., UMass Mullins Center. Tickets $35-45 at 545-0505.)

Visiting writer Daniel Hall will host the second annual Five College Poetry Festival. For this event, two student poets have been selected from each of the five colleges to read their poems. Styles will consist chiefly of narrative and contemporary. (Tues., 7:30 p.m., Cole Assembly Room.)

Harvey Pekar was a file clerk for 30 years. He was also the creator and writer of the critically acclaimed comic book series "American Splendor." Now he co-stars in "American Splendor," a brilliant documentary about his life-one that plays with form and medium, much like Pekar's work, intermingling interviews, fictionalized scenes and animation. The movie, which garnered huge success at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award, has some very clever scenes juxtaposing the real people featured in the story with the actors playing them, and again with the comic versions of themselves-all inviting the viewer to consider identity, presentation and the overlap of fact and fiction. Pekar's humor is bitter and angry, but pricelessly apt and ultimately uplifting. Pekar's just an average guy, and therein lies the appeal of both his comedy and this movie.