Those in public service to our state must be ready willing and able to rise to the occasion when called upon to do so. Each one of us, whoever we may be supporting in this year’s statewide election, is searching our heart to determine whom we feel will best fill those roles.

Most of us seem to be very confident that our favored candidates are up to the task. Others bemoan a lack of integrity or skills required to do the job well among those who are running.

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Essay by Thomas Lyons

I was at a reading recently at the Friends Meeting House in Cambridge, where I ran into Tom Lyons, the former owner of the iconic bookstore the: New England Book Fair. I have known Tom for years, and I remember he told me the late Boston Poet Laureate Sam Cornish used to work for him at his store.  On Sunday August 11, 2024 at 3PM, the New England Poetry Club and the Longfellow House presented the Sam Cornish Award to poet Gloria Mindock – the founder of the Cervena Barva Press. The reading was on the lawn of the Longfellow House, on Brattle St. in Cambridge, Mass. I asked Tom to write about his experiences with Cornish, and he generously penned this small essay.

— Doug Holder

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Michael Todd Steffen is the recipient of a Rotary International Fellowship, a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship, and an Ibbetson Street Press Poetry Award. His writing has appeared in journals including The Boston Globe, Taos Journal, E-Verse Radio, The Lyric, The Dark Horse, and North of Oxford. Of his second book of poems, On Earth As It Is, available from Cervena Barva Press, Joan Houlihan has noted the poet’s intimate portraits, sense of history, surprising wit and the play of dark and light … the striking combination of the everyday and the transcendent.

The Somerville Democratic City Committee sponsored this debate between candidates for 27th Middlesex District State Representative. Featuring incombent Erika Uyterhoeven and challenger Kathleen Hornby. Recorded on August 8, 2024 at the John F. Kennedy School in Somerville, MA.