(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries and letters to the Editor of The Somerville Times belong solely to the authors and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville Times, its staff or publishers)

There is no question, if you ask anyone who’s lived in or visited Somerville, that none of our squares are actually shaped like squares. Most of them represent some other shape and sometimes, not familiar ones (think of Davis Square’s main area with 7 streets)! Well, the City of Somerville’s Economic Development Division is using a play on geometry to promote the “It Takes All Shapes to Make a Square” campaign. The campaign asks folks to visit explore.somervillema.gov or scan a QR code on MBTA buses or at Logan Airport to sign up for forthcoming informational emails that will include local events, features about squares and neighborhoods in Somerville, resources for business owners, and more. Advertisements can be seen on area MBTA buses and at Logan Airport. The website can be viewed in 5 languages, including Spanish and Nepali, which is excellent to see.

Community members are invited to a neighborhood meeting on Wednesday, October 9, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., to discuss public safety and homelessness in the broader Seven Hills/Davis Square area. Join Mayor Katjana Ballantyne, Police Chief Shumeane Benford, Health and Human Services staff and more for an update and discussion on these issues. All members of the community including individuals and businesses are invited. The meeting will take place at: Somerville Community Baptist Church, 31 College Ave.

Eagle Feathers #314 – Second In Command

By Bob (Monty) Doherty

This article first appeared in the June 10,2015 edition of The Somerville Times

After the battle of April 19, 1775, which began in Lexington and ended in what is now Somerville, the budding country needed leaders. Out of the thirty-five American generals who served in the Revolutionary War, Rhode Island’s 33 year-old Nathanael Greene was the youngest.   He was born in 1742, exactly one hundred years before Somerville’s birth in 1842.

Whether it be homegrown or imported, we have at our fingertips an incredibly diverse and nearly exhaustive supply of mellifluous entertainment to keep us amused and amazed as we watch it pass through our community.

The same goes for commitment to political and social issues. It’s natural for the HONK! Festival organizers to choose our community in which to hold this event. Activism thrives here, driven by a long tradition of dialog on important issues of the day and a genuine concern for the betterment of our own community as well as that of the world at large.

#3 Mateus Fernandes extends the ball over the goal line for a two point conversion. — Photos by Lisa Sotir

By Harry Kane and Dave Pereira

Somerville’s big win over Malden on September 20 gave their team a boost in morale. The Highlanders defeated the Malden Golden Tornados in a double overtime game.

“I was extremely impressed with our team’s resilience and perseverance,” said Head Coach Dave Pereira. “There were multiple moments they could have folded, but they believed in each other, and were able to overcome together.”

Lesley Bannatyne

Somerville resident Lesley Bannatyne received the 2024 Grace Paley Award for Short Fiction from the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP). Her manuscript, Lake Song was selected by judge Deesha Philyaw, award-winning author of The Secret Life of Church Ladies. Bannatyne’s manuscript will be published by Mad Creek Books, an imprint of The Ohio State University Press in fall of 2025.

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A day in the life … I usually leave my home in Somerville around 5:30 AM because my classes at Endicott College start at 8AM, and I like to get my work finished, and chew the fat with a colleague of mine. Now, most who know me associate me with bagels and poetry. I discovered years ago that there was a Finagle-a Bagel on campus. And Finagle-a-Bagel was the first place the Bagel Bards literary group met in Harvard Square some 20 years ago. Anyway … for the last 15 years I have been getting a whole wheat bagel (a concession to age) with tomato and hummus. On a Tuesday, I walked in the shop, and they had everything prepared for me in advance. I assume this a great campus honor – my ritual, my hunger for this doughy treat, my Stendhal Syndrome Swoon in the face of its beauty. The counterwomen said (laughing):” If you call in sick … you must notify us.” I told my dean about this, and he laughed, “Doug you have finally arrived.” Excuse me … I think my bagel is waiting for me.

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Miriam Sagan is the author of over thirty books of poetry, fiction, and memoir. Her most recent include Castaway (Red Mountain, 2023) and A Hundred Cups of Coffee (Tres Chicas, 2019). She is a two-time winner of the New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards as well as a recipient of the City of Santa Fe Mayor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts and a New Mexico Literary Arts Gratitude Award. She has been a writer in residence in four national parks, Yaddo, MacDowell, Gullkistan in Iceland, Kura Studio in Japan, and a dozen more remote and interesting places. She works with text and sculptural installation as part of the mother/daughter creative team Maternal Mitochondria (with Isabel Winson-Sagan) in venues ranging from RV parks to galleries. She founded and directed the creative writing program at Santa Fe Community College until her retirement. Her poetry was set to music for the Santa Fe Women’s Chorus, incised on stoneware for two haiku pathways, and projected as video inside an abandoned building during the pandemic under the auspices of Vital Spaces.