The ongoing problem of excessive airplane noise generated by flights coming out of Logan airport remains a subject of concern for both public officials and the public at large.

By Jim Clark

A meeting of the City of Somerville City Council’s Public Health and Public Safety Committee was held last month at the Somerville High School Auditorium where the topic of airplane noise in and around the city was addressed by city and state representatives, as well as members of the general public.

—Photos by Adam Parise

Last Wednesday, October 2, Somerville Residents gathered in Davis Square for the annual Candlelight Vigil in support of Domestic Violence Awareness Month. People took time to speak out to the crowd. Among the speakers, Mayor Joe Curtatone and other members of the city council spoke their piece on what domestic violence means to them. The event was open to the public to attend where people were holding candles while others spoke to them about domestic violence. Members of the Somerville Fire and Police Departments were also in attendance at the vigil for support.

This week, it’s the HONK! Festival 2019. The revolutionary street spectacle of never-before-seen proportions will take place October 11-13. The pre-HONK! Brass Band Blowout kicks off in Union Square on Thursday from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m., followed by an indoor concert at Aeronaut Brewing Company from 10:30 to 11:15 p.m. On Friday, the Lantern making workshops take place from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m., with parades departing at 6:30 p.m. from Hodgkins Park, followed by the official HONK! Kickoff Party taking place at Bow Market in Union Square from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. with an all-band revue where you will get to hear from the many bands in town for the festival. On Saturday, at 12:00 p.m., it’s the Opening Ceremony in 7 Hills Park. Come celebrate the official beginning of HONK! with the first horn blast, the HONK! Cantastoria, and the buzz and energy of over 20 brass bands converging on 7 Hills Park in Davis Square. The opening ceremony will be ASL-interpreted. The Sunday parade from Davis Square to Harvard Square will include over 60 bands and community groups. The theme this year is “We All Need a Home: Housing for All, Sanctuary for All, A Healthy Planet for All!” For more information on this year’s HONK! Festival, go online to http://honkfest.org.

Volunteers gathered at Draw Seven Park last weekend to help pick up litter that had accumulated over the past year.

By Adam Parise

On the morning of Saturday, October 5, residents participated in an annual clean up at Draw Seven Park, located right behind Assembly Square Station on the MBTA’s Orange Line.

People got to experience what it is like to save the environment by picking up trash and litter in the park. The event was open to the public and was sponsored by the Somerville Conservation Commission and the Mystic River Watershed Association.

Thursday, the Massachusetts Senate unanimously passed the Student Opportunity Act, an unprecedented $1.4 billion new investment over the next seven years in K-12 public education. This legislation ensures public schools have adequate resources to provide high-quality education to students across the state, regardless of zip code or income level.

Whether it be homegrown or imported, we have at our fingertips an incredibly diverse and nearly exhaustive supply of mellifluous entertainment to keep us amused and amazed as we watch it pass through our community.

The same goes for commitment to political and social issues. It’s natural for the HONK! Festival organizers to choose our community in which to hold this event. Activism thrives here, driven by a long tradition of dialog on important issues of the day and a genuine concern for the betterment of our own community as well as that of the world at large.

Eagle Feathers #189 – The Home Front

By Bob (Monty) Doherty

On December 7, 1941, the Empire of Japan attacked American Naval and Army bases at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. It launched America into a two-front war with Japan and Germany that would change the country forever. America, the Sleeping Giant, had been treacherously awakened. Suddenly, she had to re-tool from her peaceful pursuits into an all-out war industry.

— Tufts University Photo

Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone and members of the Tufts Partnership Negotiating Committee invite residents to a community meeting on Wednesday, October 30, for an update on the current status of negotiations with Tufts University about a new Partnership Agreement between the city and the University. The meeting will begin at 7:00 p.m. at the TAB Building, 167 Holland St. The previous Partnership Agreement expired on June 30, 2018. In addition to Tufts’ Payments in Lieu of Taxes (aka “PILOT payments”), the Partnership Agreement covers issues related to student housing, partnership with Somerville schools, the university’s planning process, and other topics.

The cities of Cambridge and Somerville and the Cambridge Community Foundation would like to invite the public at large and also area businesses and organizations to come and “dance for dignity” on October 25 at the Center for Arts at the Armory in Somerville: 7:00 – 10:30 p.m.

*

Review by Off The Shelf correspondent Dennis Daly

James R. Scrimgeour communes with spirits and he does it with wit and wisdom. In Scrimgeour’s new poetry collection, Voices of Dogtown, he conjures up the denizens of a long abandoned New England village on the outskirts of Gloucester, Massachusetts. The few specters that still haunt this plot of land, called Dogtown, are not happy campers. Without any mollycoddling, the poet gives them voices and listens to their grievances, all the while working into these poems a jumble of scholarly citations, guidebook descriptions, ekphrastic commentaries, and even conjectures from an earlier eminent poet. Consider this book a topographical and historical adventure. At the end of his introductory poem entitled Dogtown, Scrimgeour sets the tone: