Concerns over the deleterious effects on operator health and the environment, as well as noise pollution in general, have prompted city officials to look into the possibilities for a ban on extremely loud leaf blowers.

By Thalia Plata

A citywide ban of gas-powered leaf blowers was a major topic on the agenda at the Somerville City Council’s Legislative Matters Committee meeting on Thursday, January 16.

Councilors discussed a ban of leaf blowers that produce sound levels of 60 decibels or higher, which would consist of gas-powered leaf blowers and very loud electric leaf blowers. Use of all other leaf blowers would be restricted to an as of yet undecided time frame.

Keynote speaker Aba Taylor of the Interaction Institute for Social Change spoke at the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration held on January 20.

By Shira Laucharoen

The annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration event invited audience members to re-examine the traditional stories they know and look to the future, held at East Somerville Community School on January 20. The program was themed “Working Today Towards a Better Tomorrow,” and featured student essay contest winners, as well as keynote speaker Aba Taylor of the Interaction Institute for Social Change.

As part of its multi-pronged response to resident concerns regarding the “Boston Straight Pride Parade” and counter-protest of August 31, 2019, the City of Somerville invites all members of the public to participate in a community dialogue. The forum will be held just outside of Union Square, in the Argenziano School Cafetorium at 290 Washington St., tonight, Wednesday, January 22, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. For more information about the city’s follow-up process to the “Boston Straight Pride Parade” and Counter-Protest, the Somerville Police Department’s After Action Report is available at this link, and the administration’s memorandum to City Council regarding next steps is available here.

In 1834, an Ursuline Convent on Mt. Benedict, in what is now Somerville, was vandalized and then burned to the ground. Join in at the Somerville Museum Sunday, January 26, for a talk by Salem State Professor Nancy Lusignan Schultz on the 20th Anniversary of her book Fire and Roses: The Burning of the Charlestown Convent, 1834.

Eagle Feathers #196 – Our Tripolitan Hero

By Bob (Monty) Doherty

In 1808, a 20-foot tall Italian marble monument was erected just inside the gates of the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C. The U.S.S. Constitution delivered it from Italy via Boston. It was the city’s first out door memorial, the first American monument approved by Congress, and the only one for decades to follow.

Brickbottom Gallery, 1 Fitchburg Street, Somerville
Opening Reception: Friday, January 24, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Show runs January 23 – February 22

Curated by Andrew Tang

Curator’s statement: Data has become mainstream, the word and its associations have become jargon. Many think of spreadsheets when you mention data, and yes, that’s a great way to catalogue, filter and sort through data: the data that we are really good at collecting, gathering and curating. But the information on these spreadsheets are about life, human information, human interactions; it’s about us and the world around us.

Former Ward 3 Alderman Robert McWatters was recently spotted in New York City’s Times Square with a mystery “woman” – rather well-known from her roles in the Disney/Pixar hit movie series Toy Story.

The annual celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day reminds us of the importance of tolerance and embracing diversity in this modern age, just as it was in the days when Dr. King walked among us.

The civil rights movement of the 60s may seem like a distant and detached part of American history for some, perhaps as remote as the civil war itself in the minds of the young who did not live in that time. And yet, there was never a time in our history when the principles involved in that struggle were more relevant and meaningful than today, and even more so as we step forward into the future.

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By Off The Shelf Correspondent Gregory J. Wolos

The Split Man

Heroin’s harbor is the addict, as Somerville Bagel Bard Marc D. Goldfinger’s collection of poems and stories, Heroin’s Harbour makes harrowingly clear. Heroin is the body of the addict that craves the drug, and it’s the mind of the addict that cooperates with the insistent body, paradoxically rationalizing any action that might provide safe harbor for a poison. Human beings are frail things, ultimately, Goldfinger’s poems and stories illustrate, too weak to commit to our resolutions or to stave off gratifications that have become needs. Goldfinger’s work does more than merely describe the habits, lifestyle, and thoughts of a junkie; he takes his reader hostage, straps us to the back of his motorcycle so that we do more than simply observe – we participate. Goldfinger’s craft enables us, along with him, to feel the needle and the need.

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Poet Dan Sklar pays tribute to a much-loved watering-hole in New York City, McSorley’s.