To honor Black History Month, the City of Somerville is hosting free public programming throughout February designed to create space for reflection, learning, and community – including a wellness workshop, film screening, and a fireside chat with Somerville’s U.S. Representative Ayanna Pressley. Programming is led by Somerville’s Department of Racial and Social Justice, in partnership with local partners. For questions about any of the City of Somerville’s Black History Month events or to learn more about the specifics of each event, please contact RSJ at rsj@somervillema.gov or visit somervillema.gov/rsj.

Open survey allows students, parents, educators , and community members to inform how statewide graduation requirements can be implemented and designed

The Healey-Driscoll Administration is inviting the public to help inform how high school graduation requirement recommendations will take shape and be put into practice before the final K-12 Statewide Graduation Council report is released in June 2026. Students, parents and caregivers, educators, district leaders, businesses, and community members can complete a survey online. The survey should take 10-12 minutes to complete.

“I’m hopeful that people will leave this year’s concert feeling hope,” says Stacie Clayton, founder and director of the annual Community Gospel Choir concerts, which have been held in honor of Black History Month almost every February since 2005.  The Choir is made up of community members of all races and backgrounds, from Somerville, Medford, and neighboring towns.

The Presidents Day holiday puts us in mind of those great leaders who governed us throughout our country’s tumultuous history: The American Revolution, the Civil War, two world wars, the Great Depression, the Civil Rights movement, and so on.

Greatness was thrust upon certain holders of that office by events that shaped their legacies, while others are relegated to general obscurity due to a lack of conflict and controversy during their times in office. Each one’s tenure in office should be regarded as equally important, seeing that great events could have elevated their place in history at the drop of a hatpin.

Eagle Feathers #348 – Sleds and sleighs

By Bob (Monty) Doherty

Boston Street on Prospect Hill is aptly named. From the top of the street on a winter day, it looks like you could coast down her elevation and not stop until you crossed the Charles and continued on into Boston. From this spot, your line of sight to the Prudential Building is dead on.

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Recently, I caught up with my fellow New England Poetry Advisory Board Member Wendy Drexler to talk about her new collection of poetry, Harvest of What Remains.

From her publisher: In Harvest of What Remains, Wendy Drexler navigates her intense journey as primary caregiver for her husband as Alzheimer’s wraps its great arms around them, irrevocably altering their relationship in ways that call upon depths of grief and survival strategies of dissimulation as well as the imperative to sow seeds of love and compassion.

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Karen Klein, Associate Professor Emerita, Brandeis University, English/American Literature. Humanities, Women’s Studies faculty, retired after 37 years of teaching. After retirement, her energies were focused on creative activities: contemporary modern dance performances; haiku & contemporary lyric publications: first full-length lyric poetry This Close (Ibbetson Press,2022); chapbook Embodied (Finishing Line Press, 2025); Circularity (Toronto, 2025) Scott Ponemone, linocuts; Karen Klein, haiku. Currently working on poems for a book about growing up in Fargo, North Dakota.

When food costs compete with heating bills and rent, many Massachusetts families are facing impossible choices.The uncertainty around nutrition policy changes makes the situation even more challenging. If you or your family need help accessing food, call Project Bread’s toll-free FoodSource Hotline today at 1-800-645-8333.

Cantonese Greeting