*

Review by Off the Shelf Correspondent Lee Varon

Nina Rubinstein Alonso’s story collection Distractions En Route: A Dancer’s Notebook and Other Stories is a marvelous collage of thirty vivid stories.

The opening two stories keenly portray a dancer’s life, as in the opening story, The Redhead Number 37, which begins with the line: “Sixty girls lined up can’t see how they look because the mirrors are draped in paper.” One by one, these dancers are eliminated. The way in which women’s bodies are objectified is heightened in the world of dance. We are told “Eliminations start with ‘body cuts’ noted on our file cards – torso long, hips wide, head large, feet stiff.”

*
Bridget Seley Galway, artist/poet. Born in Marathon Florida in 1954, Galway’s roots come from the 50’s and 60’s bohemian life style of Key West, New York’s Greenwich Village and Provincetown. Her poems have also been published in Provincetown Magazine’s Poetry Corner, Wilderness House Literary Review, Poetry Porch, Ibbetson Press, and Bagel with the Bards, to name a few. Her first collection of poems and images What Moments Yield was published by Ibbetson Press, and has been included in the following permanent collections: N.Y.C Poets House, State University of Buffalo collections, Umass Amherst W.EB Du Bois Library, and the Truro Library Cape Cod. Her art has been exhibited throughout New England, and reviewed in several publications, including Artist Magazine and Cape Arts. Her paintings have been selected for the covers of Bagel with Bards, Ibbetson Press, and individual poet publications. She is currently the Arts Editor /Curator for the Wilderness House Literary Review.

Join the Somerville Museum  for special exhibition open hours and photoshoot with artist, Iaritza Menjivar. Wednesday, February 14 | 6pm – 9pm

Grab your spouse, partner, roommate, bestie, sibling, or anyone you love and join us for a very special event. Open for special hours this Valentine’s Day come visit the current exhibition, Museo Inmigrante, and enjoy a photoshoot with award-winning photographer, Iaritza Menjivar. We’ll provide the props, background, and expertise. This Valentine’s Day do something a little different, support your local museum, and share the love with professional photos.

Three Somerville High School students represented SHS at the annual Massachusetts Music Educators Association – Eastern District Music Festival. After a comprehensive audition process, Kai Deshima (Piano), Anya Miller (Soprano), and Eclipse Felix (Bass) performed at Milton High School for the MMEA Eastern District Festival.

In addition, Eclipse Felix has been recommended to audition for All-State Chorus.

Property owners must shovel sidewalks by 1 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 14 

Mayor Ballantyne ordered halt to ticketing, ordered no towing, waives tickets due to radical shift in forecast

The City of Somerville’s snow emergency will end today, Tuesday, Feb. 13, at 10 a.m, and normal parking rules will resume at that time. The information below offers tips to avoid ticketing and towing as well as strategies for being a good neighbor and staying safe. 

Budding builders and ninja masters rang in Lunar New Year at LEGO Discovery Center Boston Saturday with a preview of the attraction’s NINJAGO: Dragon’s Rising event. What better year to find your inner dragon power than 2024, the year of the dragon!

Sublime to add more than 23,000 square feet of pilot and R&D space to the Somerville innovation hub. — Photo courtesy of Somernova.

 Rafi Properties, owner and operator of Somernova, the 7.4 acre innovation campus and community dedicated to helping people and companies iterate and grow faster, announced today that Sublime Systems (Sublime) will expand their headquarters on the campus. Sublime, the leading developer of a fossil-fuel-free, scalable, drop-in replacement for traditional cement in concrete, will add more than 23,000 square feet of space for their 250 tonnes-per-year pilot facility and R&D lab to their footprint, in addition to the 6,500 square feet they currently occupy on the campus. Sublime’s expansion underscores Somernova’s continued status as a leading hub for the rapid growth of early-stage and venture-backed climatetech and tough tech companies in the region.

Community members are invited to attend “Uplifting Youth Experiences,” which will feature two special presentations: The Harvard Kennedy School of Government will be discussing the findings of their strategic study: “Mitigating Small Business Displacement in Somerville, MA” that centers on understanding the obstacles facing small business owners in Somerville. Then, the Department of Racial & Social Justice’s Youth League will present their research into displacement and gentrification in Somerville.

The Armory Cafe’s Songwriter Sessions next evening of music takes place on Saturday, March 2.

Somerville Songwriter Sessions at the Armory Cafe presents an evening of music on Saturday, March 2, with songwriter/songwriters Zion Rodman, Rob Laurens and Sam Bayer. The concert features a set by each artist, followed by a round robin song swap.