Books & Ideas
The Vineyard Haven Public Library begins a new evening movies series on Tuesday, Sept. 2, at 7 p.m. with the screwball comedy Bringing up Baby. starring Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn.
Poetry for Survivors
Registration has begun for Sound/Body/Love/Poem, a six-session series of gently erotic writing workshops with Samantha Barrow for survivors of sexual abuse. Sessions run Saturdays from 12:30 to 3 p.m. Registration required; space limited. Classes begin Sept. 6. Sliding scale fees range from $185 to $250. For details, call 215 605-7752 or e-mail [email protected].
Sharon Robinson, author of Stealing Home, a memoir of her family life with baseball dad Jackie Robinson, held court last Friday at what’s becoming the Island’s clubhouse, The Oyster Bar & Grill. From weddings to fundraisers, the trendy eatery at the top of Circuit avenue in Oak Bluffs, with high wooden booths and brown satin curtains that put you in mind of Renoir and absinthe-sippers, has hosted a string of special events. This past Friday it was the scene of Ms. Robinson’s talk, the third in a NAACP series of summer luncheons.
In this serialized novel set on the Vineyard in real time, a native Islander (“Call me Becca”) returns home after many years to help her eccentric Uncle Abe keep his landscaping business, Pequot, afloat. Abe has a paranoid hatred of Richard Moby, the chief executive of an off-Island wholesale nursery. Convinced that Moby wants to destroy Abe personally, and all Island-based landscaping/nursery businesses generally, Abe is obsessed with “taking down” Moby. His efforts have so far been failures, but that does not discourage him.
Africa’s Own
Founder and director of the organization Africa’s Own, Nathaniel Scott, and Aduei Riak, a refugee from Sudan’s civil war, will give a free talk on Thursday, August 28, at 7:30 p.m. at the Chilmark Community Center.
Ms. Riak has finished her undergraduate degree at Brandeis University, worked for a year as a paralegal and is now working on a large school construction project back in Sudan.
Africa’s Own is raising funds to help her, and other Africans, with their own development projects.
Vineyard artist Cindy Kane will discuss her new internationally traveling exhibition — which combines art and journalism in a unique installation — in a free talk Thursday, August 28 at 5:00 p.m. at the Aquinnah library.