Em Plotkin, Leah McCarthy, and Kenzie Ballard, the co-directors of Groundwork Somerville at South Street Farm. — Photos by Mina Rose Morales

By Mina Rose Morales

In the corner of a narrow alley, industrial buildings, busy streets, and graffiti walls surround an urban farm, and down the street sits a community garden – both parts of Groundwork Somerville.

Ivan Abarca-Torres (center), curator of the “Common Ground: Photography, Place and Community” exhibition. — Photo courtesy of the Somerville Museum

By Keith Foster

Cultural leader and community builder Ivan Abarca-Torres collaborated with 15 local artists who have chosen Somerville as their home to showcase their work in a curated tour, Common Ground: Photography, Place and Community, at the Somerville Museum, now through December 5.

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What’s the difference between a frittata, a quiche, and a tart? A frittata and quiche are basically the same, both are savory dishes with the only difference being the quiche has a crust. But now we add a tart into the mix.

For some of us, it feels like forever since we’ve shaken off the cares and concerns that seem to be bearing down so heavily as we observe the divisions and discord that have been so prevalent in our society over the past few years.

Another state election is just around the corner. The balance of power in Washington will be in play, and more than ever it seems as though so much will be at stake in this particular election cycle, no matter which side we align with.

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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.