Community
John Abrams came down from the mountains. It was 1975 and he had arrived on the Island from a commune in Vermont with his friend Mitchell Posin, his wife Chris, and his five-year-old son Pinto. They’d come to build a house in Chilmark.
Early afternoon on a hot and humid Monday. Between moments of calm, there is an ongoing flow of summer-garbed people coming and going, checking on books they’ve ordered, renewing books, searching for something new to read and DVDs to watch. But no one comes in to the West Tisbury Free Public Library without his or her entrance being noted and acknowledged. Familiarity is instantaneous, and all visitors — young and old — are received with hushed welcome.
This Sunday, August 4, Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs presents Dr. John Silvanus Wilson Jr., president of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga., as its visiting speaker.
A scholar, an educator, a consultant, a strategist and a fundraiser, Dr. Wilson became the 11th president of Morehouse College in January of this year. This spring he hosted President Obama as the Morehouse commencement speaker.
The service begins at 10 a.m. with an organ prelude at 9:40 a.m.
Thunder Ben David of Chilmark died Thursday, July 25, after seven glorious years as the biggest attraction at Native Earth Teaching Farm owned by Rebecca Gilbert and Randy Ben David. “He was our rock star boar,” said Ms. Gilbert.
The Unitarian Universalist Society focuses on Dr. Martin Luther King this Sunday, August 4, with its 11 a.m. service. The Rev. Ed Hardy explores Cornel West’s speech commemorating the life of Dr. King at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in 2010. Mr. West’s presentation was titled Don’t Sanitize Martin Luther King.
Oak Bluffs selectman Walter Vail called it a perfect Vineyard day. Kites hung in the clear blue sky over Ocean Park and a light breeze blew in off Nantucket Sound on Saturday. A crowd had gathered beneath a peaked tent to celebrate the memory of Della Hardman, a leader in the Island African American community and in the Island community as a whole.