Art
Emperor of Ocean Park author, Yale law professor and seasonal Islander Stephen L. Carter will discuss Why Democracy Needs Books, the subject of his next book, on Sunday, July 18 at 2 p.m. at the Vineyard Haven Public Library.
The event, with a reception following, is presented by the Friends of the Vineyard Haven Public Library.
Carol Wincenc, one of the most respected and praised flutists performing today, will be the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society featured guest artist in the second concert of its season next Monday at the Old Whaling Church in Edgartown.
Ms. Wincenc’s stand-out piece will be Fury of Light, written for her by the well-known young opera composer Jake Heggie, which sets to music Mary Oliver’s poem Sunrise. Ms. Wincenc debuted this work at Merkin Hall in 2009. Another virtuoso piece will be Grigoras Dinicu’s Hora Staccato.
Livingston Taylor was the pesky little brother who ran around at family gatherings, the one that loved show and tell at school, and the little brother that pulled at sister Kate Taylor’s pigtails. Hopefully at their Tabernacle concert this weekend, there will be no hair pulling, only song.
“I’m amusing, but Kate is magical,” Mr. Taylor said on a recent afternoon on his back patio. “My sister is so beautiful, so spirited, and has such a grace. I’m good, but my sister is great. She’s got the magic.”
The feature film Ajami, a drama nominated for this year’s best foreign film Oscar, will screen on Sunday, July 18, at 7:30 p.m. at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center.
Ajami is set on the streets of Jaffa’s Ajami neighborhood, a turbulent melting pot of conflicting cultures and politics. The story is told through the eyes of the city’s Israelis and Palestinians, wealthy and poor. At the center is a dramatic series of events which play out amid the tragic consequences of enemies living as neighbors.
The United States will likely remain stuck in the war in Afghanistan well past President Obama’s nominated date next year for beginning to pull troops out, one of the architects of the President’s Afghan policy says.
In an address on the Vineyard on Thursday night, Bruce Riedel, the former CIA officer and current senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who chaired last year’s review of policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan, gave a generally pessimistic assessment of the state of the Afghan war.
Spirituals Enlightenment
The songs sung by slaves to send messages to each other will be decoded by the teaching choir led by Jim Thomas, president of the U.S. Slave Song Project, on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs. The concert, Songs from the Field: The Mystery of Spirituals, with guest Lavert Stuart, is family-friendly. Tickets are $15.