Jonah Lipsky
As 42 people departed on foot from Sepiessa Point Reservation in West Tisbury at 9 a.m. sharp on Saturday morning, the air was a cool 50 degrees and the sky was clear blue. We were heading ultimately to Wilfred’s Pond Preserve in Vineyard Haven. The 15-mile walk would cross Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank properties, ancient ways and public roads that are hidden in the back woods of the Island.
By JONAH LIPSKY
Near the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and MassArt in Boston lies a small basement gallery. At the entrance to the space a large electric sign hovers above the door displaying the word yes in three languages: Yes. Oui. Si.
Third grade ain’t what it used to be, and nowhere is this more pronounced than in Deborah Hammett’s class at the Oak Bluffs School, where four state-of-the art iPads arrived this week, thanks to a $2,500 grant from Comcast. The grant was given to support classes that use technology in their work.
What, you might ask, will third graders do with iPads? Lots of things, as it turns out.
Summer is peeking in at the Island, with buds and bushes in full bloom and sunsets that spread across the western sky with rosy-hued fingertips.
And it’s summer for business too — shops are opening, gardeners and farmers are busy putting flowers and crops in the ground, and more than a few new shingling and painting jobs are in evidence around the Island.
What happened at the end of high school that you would rather forget? And what would it be like if your dark past was suddenly shoved in your face ten years later? By someone you trusted?
This is the premise of the play Tape by Stephen Bender beginning its run next Thursday, June 2 at the Vineyard Playhouse and continuing for two weeks. Tape first appeared at the Humana Festival of New American Plays in 2000 and was later adapted into a film starring Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman.
Compassion is not a quick fix to social injustice and prejudice in the world. It grows too slowly within people. But without compassion there is no hope of real change. And building lasting change is the true base line of Untouchable Voices, a play written by musician Tabea Mangelsdorf and actress Anna Procter.