Friday Conversation

William O’Brien, chairman of the Dukes County Charter Study Commission, will speak in the Friday Conversations program at the Oak Bluffs Senior Center from 10 to 11:30 a.m. on Friday, June 13. More information is available by calling moderator Robert A. Iadicicco at 508-693-9771.

Geology and Scenery

Longtime Chilmark summer resident Conrad Neumann will present a free program titled Geology and Scenery on Land and Sea at the Chilmark Public Library on Thursday, June 19, from 5 to 6 p.m.

Mr. Neumann, who lives in Chapel Hill, N.C. in the winter, taught geology and oceanography at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill for many years.

For details, call 508-645-3360.

Painter, illustrator and landscape historian Diane Nicholls returns to Polly Hill Arboretum this week wth her popular workshop series Observing and Drawing the Landscape. Participants will learn art techniques to record observations of the natural landscape, in weekly Wednesday sessions from 1 to 4 p.m. Drawing lessons will include perspective, sketching and developing a “personal shorthand.” Ms. Nicholls will also present methods for keeping a daily sketchbook.

Lecture on Spirituals

The Vineyard Haven Public Library hosts James Thomas, founding president of the U.S. Slave Song Project, to speak on the history and interpretation of spirituals, on Tuesday, June 10, at 6:30 p.m.

Welcome. We’re here today to get approval to leave this place. To be told that we’re done, al fin, la fine. But if we were to place this summer, right here, on a timeline of the things that our class will create, the ideas that our class will manifest, the places that our class will go, you would find that we, the class of 2008, are not done.