Indigenous, Black, and colonial narratives highlighted the Blessing of the Bay: Three Voices, One Shore event held this past weekend. — Photos courtesy of Yuris Mangolds

By The Times Staff

Blessing of the Bay: Three Voices, One Shore, the newest installment in Somerville Museum’s History in the Park series, offered a powerful and multivocal reflection on the area historically known as Ten Hills Farm last Saturday. Held on the banks of the Mystic River, the event brought together Indigenous, Black, and colonial narratives to reframe the city’s oldest settlement. 

Niki Vavar and the knight training obstacle course. — Photos by Norah Doyle

By Norah Doyle

Somerville Public Library hosted its annual ComixCon with a medieval twist on Saturday, July 26.

The library, decorated with fantasy character cardboard cutouts like Luke Skywalker, Tyrion Lanister, and even Wonder Woman, was bursting with enthusiastic attendees. To enter the building, guests would pass by knight training sessions on the front lawn and children scurrying around on hobby horses.

Somer Fest, the city’s flagship festival celebrating BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) artists, creators, and small businesses, is back for the first time since 2022 on Saturday, August 2, at Seven Hills Park from 3 to 5:30 p.m. The 2025 event features a dynamic lineup of performers, including hip-hop artist Bille, soulful sounds from Mada Silva, and more. Attendees can enjoy a curated artisan market, food from Dos Manos Kitchen, and interactive experiences and activities for all ages. Produced by the Somerville Arts Council in collaboration with Citixen Joy, this open-air festival is designed to uplift local creativity, spark connection, and build an inclusive cultural experience for all.

Červená Barva Press editor and publisher Gloria Mindock.

In April, Červená Barva Press celebrated its 20th anniversary. To mark this milestone, editor and publisher Gloria Mindock recorded many of her authors reading poems or short excerpts from their fiction for a special video series, now available on YouTube. In addition to authors, several friends of the press – long-time supporters of its work – also contributed readings from their own writing. The series currently includes eight videos, each featuring approximately ten readers. Gloria plans to record two more groups before shifting to other celebratory events.

Who can honestly say that they don’t have a special place in their heart for warm summer days where lingering in the sun, soaking it in, makes up for all the icy months we suffer through off-season?

Still, there are times when the heat gets a little too intense for our liking and for our health and wellbeing, as we’ve experienced this past week or so.

Eagle Feathers #334 – ‘Casey at the Bat’

By Bob (Monty) Doherty

“Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright, the band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light, and somewhere men are laughing, and little children shout; there is no joy in Mudville/mighty Casey has struck out.”  So goes the last stanza of the fictitious poem Casey at the Bat.  It is regarded by most as the most famous baseball poem ever written.  August 14 is the 150th anniversary of the birth of the poem’s author, said to be Earnest Lawrence Thayer.  Born in Lawrence, the son of a wealthy mill owner, he went to Harvard.  After graduating, he traveled west to work for his college friend William Randolph Hearst at his San Francisco newspaper.  Thayer later returned east to run his father’s Worcester woolen Mill.  This is where it is said he wrote the poem, and then sent it and other articles to Hearst.  Casey at the Bat was published in June 1888.

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Review by Dennis Daly

Doug Holder doesn’t beat around the bush. His poetry grabs you with its pent-up gusto and bohemian worldview. Maddening at times. Falling-down funny. Sad, beyond troubling. Ravenous. A direct poetic descendant of Ginsberg, Corso, and Huncke, this poet today stands alone in his alternate universe with his off-kilter, gritty observations. In his new collection, I Aint Gonna Wait For Godot No More, Holder wanders over the creaking floorboards of his poetic offerings, confronting existential questions and supplying make-do answers. Mortality and meaning lurk between his insistent lines.

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Kymm Coveney (Boston, 1959) lives in Barcelona and spends summers in Jamaica Plain. History of Milk, her translation of award-winning novelist Mónica Ojeda’s poetry collection, will be published by Coffee House Press in 2026/27. Poems from this collection have been published in Poesía en acción, Poetry Northwest, Latin American Literature Today, The Georgia Review, and two are forthcoming in World Literature Today. Another was awarded Honorable Mention in the 2022 New England Poetry Club’s Diana Der-Hovanessian Prize for translation, a prize she will be judging this year. Kymm’s poetry has been included most recently in California Quarterly and Molecule: a tiny lit mag in the US, as well as Atrium Poetry and various anthologies in the UK. More at https://betterlies.blogspot.com/ (Photo by Cesc Anadón).

Flor Delgadillo’s painting forms with Jamaal Eversley’s poetry. The audience members respond to prompts read by Jamaal and Flor Delgadillo, and they will use your words to create paintings through dance movements.