The Somerville Community Growing Center has announced a full slate of community events for the season, including a performance of Mr. Twister and the Tale of Tornado Alley led by stage director and designer Brenda L. Huggins; Brazilian Harvest Festival (Festa Junina); over a dozen talks and workshops focused on food, fermentation and herbs; story-acting workshops for children; live music performances; poetry and literature; and readings by children’s book authors including Mariana Oscar, Valerie Williams and others. Plus, annual events like the Stuffed Animal Campout; Gathering of the Fairies; Seasonal Salvage Sale; and Harvest Festival. The year 2023 is the Growing Center’s 30th season in operation, marking a major milestone.

A full events listing, including links to all event fliers, can be found at www.thegrowingcenter.org/2023. 

Mr. Twister and the Tale of Tornado Alley (June 3) is an operatic adventure of global proportions that follows the title character and his grandson on a journey around the globe as a cyclone brews in Tornado Alley.  This children’s show features a puppetry workshop beforehand. Rain Location: Connexion Church, 149 Broadway, Somerville.

Festa Junina (June 24) is the second largest annual celebration in Brazil, after Carnaval. This Harvest Festival corresponds with the start of winter in Brazil. The event will include craft stations (root printing, lantern making, dance accessories); folk dancing and live music. It will also feature a live Kamishibai performance by Yumi Izuyama based on a Festa Junina story, highlighting together Yumi’s Brazilian and Japanese heritage. This is an event for all ages. Rain Date: June 25.

A series spanning from May through October, the Community Read-Alouds feature guest readers, many of whom are children’s book authors, illustrators, or educators from within and outside of the Somerville community. Primarily aimed at ages 1-8, these readings will be offered in a variety of languages, and will sometimes feature an activity or craft.

The Center’s educational workshops focus on herbs, food growing and fermentation. Funded through a grant from Mountain Rose Herbs, the Community Herb Project aims to foster an understanding of the role of herbs in medicinal, culinary, and therapeutic practices. Herb workshops include talks on growing/preserving; herbal tea blends; the science of herbs; and a three-part “Herb of the Month” series led by clinical herbalist Mo Katz-Christy. Separately, the Growing & Thriving workshop series features talks on growing microgreens; sourdough bread making; and fermented dairy. 

The Painted Playground, which offers outdoor playgroups in Somerville intended to facilitate relationships for children and caregivers, will hold three separate Story-Acting Workshops in the garden, July 1; August 5 and 26. These arts-based sessions are inspired by the work of early childhood education researcher/teacher Vivian Paley. Children enjoy free play time in the garden, then dictate or write down stories which will be acted out as a group. Focused on ages 1-12. 

Arts and music events will include two performances by Craft Ensemble, a String quartet featuring chamber music; two evenings of Kadanz Jazz, featuring jazz standards with Caribbean and Latin flavors; and a new series titled Open Hours for the Arts, a take on the Center’s Open Garden Hours featuring a variety of cultural programs. These include Adult Read-Alouds of literature and poetry with relevance to the mission of the Center; several Letter Writing Workshops; and a special Bouquet and Cyanotype Workshop (June 10) incorporating nature and art, offered by Terra+Soma.

Additionally, the Center’s annual summer and fall events include the Second Annual Stuffed Animal Campout (Sunday, August 6); the Gathering of the Fairies (Saturday, September 16); the Harvest Festival (Sunday, October 1) and the Second Annual Seasonal Salvage Sale & Makers’ Market (Saturday, October 21).

The season started with the Annual Maple Boil Down on Saturday, March 11, when more than 500 people descended on the Growing Center for a celebration of the maple season hosted by the Growing Center and Groundwork Somerville. Read coverage of the event. Saturday, April 22 marked Earth Day: Creatively Celebrating the Earth Together, an event co-hosted by the Friends of the Community Growing Center, the City of Somerville’s Office of Sustainability and Environment and the Climate Coalition of Somerville. Read coverage of the event. Spring Garden Day, on Sunday, May 14, featured the traditional Maypole dance, performances by Red Herring Morris Dancers, seed giveaways, and community partners like Earthwise Aware, a nonprofit partner dedicated to biodiversity and climate and citizen science in communities in Greater Boston. 

For more information and to see a full listing of the Growing Center’s 2023 events, PLUS links to all event fliers (some in Spanish and Portuguese), go to www.thegrowingcenter.org/2023. 

The Festa Junina, Mr. Twister, Craft Ensemble and Kadanz Jazz are all supported in part by funding from the Somerville Arts Council, a local commission supported by the City of Somerville and the Massachusetts Cultural Council.