Books & Ideas
Joe Cressy
Salty and scholarly
Haltingly clear
What Joe Cressy spoke
You wanted to hear
Scottish and kilted
Malt in his hand
Reciting keenly
So Scots understand
Heeling on Halcyon
Bound for the sky
Cresting and leaning
A tear in his eye
Mary and daughters
Author Winslow Myers will present Living Beyond War, sharing his beliefs and commitment to end war, on Sunday, May 22, at 5 p.m. at the Unitarian-Universalist Society Chapel at 238 Main street in Vineyard Haven.
The organization called Beyond War has been working for 25 years to change thinking about war. During the Cold War, teams of high level scientists from the then Soviet Union and the U.S. wrote a book together about the dangers of accidental nuclear war.
Creative Writing Classes
The Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing will once again be offering classes at its summer seminar taking place during the week of July 18. The institute has also added a one week summer camp this year for high school students. The writers’ camp will run July 11 through 15 and be held at the charter school.
When Elizabeth Murray was 16 years old, she had already seen far too much of the unforgiving side of life, and she had begun to ask herself if what she knew was all there was. What she knew was that she’d recently buried her mother, who died of AIDS, in a donated pine box with her name misspelled on it. Mr. Murray’s addict father, who was suffering from AIDS himself in a homeless shelter elsewhere in New York city, could not attend. Ms. Murray herself had dropped out of high school and was homeless.
Parenting Teens
The joys of parenting are endless but so are the difficulties. Each year brings new challenges as children grow older and more independent. The teenage years can be the most difficult to navigate.
With this in mind, the Dukes County Health Council and Youth Task Force are sponsoring a talk by Martha B. Straus entitled Dangerous Transitions: Parenting Teens with Heart and Courage. The talk will be held at the YMCA on Wednesday, May 18 from 7 to 8:30 p.m.
Writers’ Group Unveiled
On Sunday evenings for the last several years a group of writers has been gathering at the Cleaveland House in West Tisbury, the home of mystery writer Cynthia Riggs. The writers meet to share their work and help critique and inspire each other while traveling down that very solitary road of the creative process.