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In Main St Rag’s blistering poetry anthology, Wag the Dog: Poems of Politics and Social Justice, New England voices contribute to a national chorus. The collection’s greatest strength is the range of ways its poets experience political life. Along the way, they confront encroaching authoritarianism, the military-industrial complex, the oligarchy and income inequality, and the erosion of access to health care, among other issues. The poems also display a warm immediacy; they move between public events and inner voices – through kitchens, medical appointments, offices, gardens, American history and personal memory. Some demand an honest appraisal of what one citizen’s vote can do in the face of this national peril, while others hint that saplings will live to outgrow the pines and oaks with their ominous institutional shadows.

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Susan Isla Tepper has been a writer for twenty-plus years and is the author of fourteen published books of fiction and poetry, and seven stage plays. She writes in all genres, with stories, poems, interviews, essays, and opinion columns published extensively worldwide. CLANDESTINE, her stage play about food obsessions and disconnect in a long-term marriage, will go up for a full run in a red barn theatre, off, off, bdwy. Her latest book is a novella titled Girl Upside Down, from Wilderness House Press.

Made possible by a grant from the Somerville Arts Council, The Commute sits at the intersection of Boston theatre, public transit, and the present danger of AI agents running rogue. On November 1st, this new play is presented at the Rockwell in Somerville, starring two-time Elliott Norton award winning actor Anthony T. Goss of The Covenant. Four people are trapped on the Red Line heading towards Boston. Tensions build as they have to face each other, and themselves.

“Can a community of people make an experiential art space free for artists for a year?” This is the central question being asked as part of Bow Market’s “A Year of Experiential Art” (YEA), Bow’s latest effort to bring boundary pushing art to Somerville.

Join Somerville Youth Hockey Association and Growing Girls Hockey parent group for a special Girls Only Try Hockey for Free event.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) announces that for the first time, today Orange Line subway service will be able to operate up to 55 MPH between Assembly Station and North Station in the inbound and outbound direction.

Join this week’s ‘Neighborhood Connect’ meeting for an overview of the latest City and community updates.

The series concludes on Wednesday, October 21, in Ward 2 in the Argenziano School cafeteria (290 Washington St.). The meeting will run from 6 to 8 p.m. Free pizza and refreshments will be available starting at 6 p.m.

— Photo by Bobbie Toner

Free festival brings live music, a costume parade, and fall fun to Union Square

From fluff to frights, Somerville is celebrating its hometown heroes. On Sunday, October 18 (rain date October 25), the Arts & Culture Division is holding its annual Monster Mash celebration in honor of the Halloween classic co-written by Somerville native Bobby “Boris” Pickett. The afternoon-long event will include a costume parade, pumpkin carving, face painting and local food vendors.