Muralist Joe Barillaro was chosen to bring his unique style of design to the Morse-Kelley Playground. – Photo by Harry Kane

By Harry Kane

Morse-Kelley Playground is receiving a hip and edgy makeover and with it, the parks department has commissioned a local muralist to create a wall painting.

 By Jeremy F. van der Heiden

The City of Somerville was recently recognized as one of the “100 Best Communities for Young People” by America’s Promise Alliance for the fourth consecutive year. Mayor Joseph Curtatone and Superintendent of Schools Tony Pierantozzi held the second annual Celebrate Somerville at the Somerville High School gymnasium this past Saturday, February 25, to recognize the city’s commitment to the education and betterment of its youth.

It is with considerable pride that we celebrate Somerville’s fourth consecutive year of being chosen as one of the 100 Best Communities for Young People by the America’s Promise Alliance. We certainly couldn’t agree more with that assessment, and this past weekend’s “Celebrate Somerville!” event held at the Somerville High School gymnasium gave residents an opportunity to express their sense of satisfaction and accomplishment, as well as to just plain have a good time with the kids themselves.

By Andrew Firestone

Get ready folks, here comes a real event. For the last few years, the world-renowned Technology, Entertainment, and Design (TED) non-profit out of Long Beach and Palm Springs has allowed their method to spread, spawning the TEDx program. Somerville organizers successfully applied to have Somerville get its own TEDx and now a new conference to discuss the state of the American city is set to premiere on Sunday, March 4. Sure to be a discussion to remember, this TEDx will feature 25 speakers of the ‘Villen caste, along with five musical acts and 36 artists showing their work.

Dust off your funny bone, Somerville – Awkward Compliment Comedy Night is on a mission to amuse you.–Photo by Harry Kane

By Harry Kane

On any given Thursday night, in the dungeon of Somerville Theater, a sketch comedy group brings a burst of laughter to the doldrums of everyday monotony.

Cynthia Maurice’s grandfather.

By Sanjeev Selvarajah

Brickbottom Artists Association’s current show, entitled Familiar Faces: Family and Self Portraits, is described as “an invitation to artists and viewers to take a look at what we think we already know very well, our family and ourselves.”

– Photo by Donald Norton

Pictured here is busy Jeannie P. Scarpa, recent winner of the Best of Somerville Award, Century Bank’s own Vice President and Branch Manager of the Fellsway Office here in Somerville. Jeannie is very popular here in Somerville and is also this year’s President of Somerville Rotary. She’s never too busy, though, to talk to old and new clients of the bank. She’s got that huge smile on her all the time, just ask anyone that knows her. Call her and ask her anything about the bank and what they have to offer at 617-629-0927 or email her at jscarpa@centurybank.com. This week Jeannie is our pick for Person of the Week, and every week we will have one person chosen as Person of the Week here in the ‘Ville.

Pictured left to right: Hui Chen, Clare Storck, CNM (holding baby Emma Chen) and Mingna Liu.

By Savath Yong

With an appropriately titled last name, Certified Nurse-Midwife Clare Storck of Somerville was on hand to deliver the 9000th baby born at The Midwives at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge on Saturday, Feb. 11.

Well…I was glad to be included in the poetry anthology  Last Call: The Bukowski Legacy Continues. I know many a Somerville writer has cited the Buk–(the late, dirty old man of poetry)–and he remains an inspiration to the non-mandarins of the poetry world to this day. Reviewer and Somerville Bagel Bard Dennis Daly, a former columnist for The Salem News, piped in with this article.

The St. Clement Lady Anchors, despite a tremendous effort, finished their regular season just shy of securing a playoff berth.

Girls Basketball

The St. Clement Lady Anchors finished 8-12 on the season just shy of a playoff berth, tying for fourth in the Catholic Central League. The team had a tough non-league schedule going 0-6 facing Ursuline, Austin Prep, and Maimonides, but collected lots of experience as they look to build for next year. The team will graduate only three seniors, Elva Martinez, Diana Tran, and Beatrice Boisvert. “We had an incredibly young team this year. I knew it was going to be a rough start and knew the seniors we had were great leaders and we would be a totally different team in February then we were in December.” Head Coach Alyssa Jann looks ahead to next year excitedly, “We obviously have some big gaps to fill, but I could not be more excited about the potential of all the underclassman. We have so many kids contributing at this point, next year teams are going to have a hard time choosing who to stop!” Jann is a native of Westford and played Division 1 Basketball for Quinnipiac. She was named Player of the Year in 2006 and 2007 while at Westford Academy.