By Rebecca Danvers

Somerville-based Art of Black Dance & Music, Inc., (ABDM) turns 40 this year. De Ama Battle, Director and Master Artist, met several times with Deborah Mason, Director of the Deborah Mason School of Dance to introduce West African Dance styles in her summer dance intensive.

Coming up this week on Somerville Neighborhood News:

Schools out for summer. Youth job and arts programs around the city teach valuable lessons and benefit the city as well.

The one-of-a-kind Leavitt & Peirce shop in Harvard Square is a throwback to simpler times, and owner Paul MacDonald likes to keep it that way. — Photos by Patrick McDonagh

By Patrick McDonagh

Somerville resident Paul MacDonald is the self-proclaimed dinosaur of Harvard Square retail business. MacDonald’s ten dollar flip phone is left off, on the passenger seat of an 88 Ford Bronco while he is at work, logging business transactions and mailing checks by hand long after closing.

— Photos by Claudia Ferro

East Somerville Community School’s annual Moving On ceremony took place on June 24. Kindergartners held the hand of a 8th graders and walked them into the auditorium as a symbol of leading them onto the next part of their life, high School. Superintendent of Schools Tony Pierantozzi was in attendance, as was Ward 1 School Committee member Steve Roix.

This July 4th, 2015, the Boston-based nonprofit, HandReach, is bringing trauma survivors of all walks of life together for a day and a night of hope and healing. The daytime event, Healing Hands, will offer those who’ve experienced all types of trauma –from combat service to domestic violence — a chance to try out healing modalities perhaps previously unheard of. Practitioners will offer everything from tai chi, to chair yoga, to animal therapy, to myofascial release, to aromatouch technique, to sound healing, to animal therapy, and much much more.

By Jim Clark

Police were dispatched to the K-Mart store on Middlesex Ave. Saturday evening on reports of shoplifting in progress.

Arriving officers were advised that a man, later identified as Brian Belew, of Chelsea, had been observed by loss prevention personnel cutting open boxes containing expensive perfume with a knife and concealing the bottles on his person.

By Joseph A. Curtatone

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville Times belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville Times, its staff or publishers)

Three weeks of budget hearings wrapped up last week after long nights, lots of numbers, and a diligent review by the Board of Aldermen. We now have a responsible budget for the coming year that meets our obligations while continuing to improve city services despite a tumultuous winter. In February, I said this would be the best budget year in our history. More than 110 inches of snow later, the most snowfall in one winter in our city’s history, we had to come up with a plan to pay for our extensive snow removal and subsequently hold off on some of the new programs we wanted to implement for the coming year. Yet we’re not going backwards or even holding still. We won’t stall the progress we’ve made.

The Fourth of July Independence Day celebration at Trum Field will begin with free entertainment at 6 p.m., concluding with a 30-minute fireworks display at approximately 9:15 p.m.

The following street closures and parking restrictions will be in effect on Thursday evening:

~Photos by Bobbie Toner

The 11th annual Family Fun Day at Trum Field took place on Saturday, June 27 and featured free, family-friendly programming including a community BBQ, pony rides, train rides, children’s activities, face painting, music, and more.

A Tufts University student reported yesterday that on Saturday, 06/27/15 at approximately 5:30 p.m. she was walking near campus on Teele Ave when an unknown college age male exposed himself to her.