Local artists Juan Diaz and Brett Cullen recently created new artwork at the Sacramento Street pedestrian tunnel.

By Jessica Sisavath

The Somerville Arts Council (SAC) debuts a new mural at Sacramento Street by local artists. The Council contacted local artist Hector Sanchez to search for local graffiti artists to help paint a mural at Sacramento Street’s pedestrian tunnel.

A row of open injection booths line the walls at Insite Vancouver, a safe consumption site in Canada. There are 13 booths in this facility. — Photo courtesy of Vancouver Coastal Health

Plan to launch nation’s first supervised consumption site is back in motion following pandemic pause

By Juliet Isselbacher
Somerville Wire

Supervised consumption sites – otherwise known as overdose prevention sites – have been implemented with demonstrable success in Canada, Australia, and much of Europe. Such sites allow people to consume substances – including intravenous drugs – under the supervision of trained professionals, who can administer or arrange life-saving care in the event of a medical emergency.

Join a town hall meeting on Tuesday, May 25, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m., to discuss plans to establish a supervised consumption site (SCS) in Somerville. At the meeting you can learn more about how SCS work, see data from a recently conducted needs assessment and evaluation, and ask questions of city officials and public health experts. The meeting will be hosted on Zoom, and there will also be an option to call into the meeting from a phone. Visit somervillema.gov/virtualtownhall at the start time of the meeting to join live or get call-in information. The Somerville Public Schools will also send meeting information via their alert system to all student families and conduct additional multilingual outreach via the School’s Somerville Family Learning Collaborative. Call-in information will also be available on the day of each meeting on City Cable TV and the Educational Channel (channels 13 and 15 on RCN, channels 15 and 22 on Comcast) or by calling 311. You can submit feedback and questions about information presented at the meeting online at http://bit.ly/SCSComments. The comment form will be left open until Friday, June 11.

Eagle Feathers #64 – On Guard!

By Bob (Monty) Doherty

*This article originally appeared in the October 29, 2014 edition of The Times. We are repeating it this week in memory of Olympia Dukakis, who recently passed.

Olympia was her name … fencing was her game … and acting was her fame.

Her immigrant mother and father came to America from Greece and named her after the fields of Olympia, the site of the ancient games. As a young girl, she grew up in the tough ethnic neighborhoods of Lowell and Somerville and learned to be a scrapper while living here before, during, and after World War II.

“Hmm … let’s see. What does our city need that it does not yet possess and just has to have? Ah, yes! Its own center for the arts!”

Clearly, this was not the actual thought process that brought the city to take steps towards acquiring the Center for Arts at the Armory complex by eminent domain in the very near future. Still, to some it may well be easily imagined that way.

Arrests:
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Christine Benjamin, of Roxbury, May 13, 1:02 p.m., arrested at McGrath Hwy. on a warrant charge of larceny under $1200.

Lamont Sands, of Holbrook, May 14, 10:27 p.m., arrested at Windsor St. on a charge of receiving a stolen motor vehicle.

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Somerville Poet, publisher Gloria Mindock is an institution around our town, and beyond. She founded the Cervena Barva Press, and was our former poet laureate. She has been active member of the arts scene for a number of decades. Mindock has a new poetry collection, Ash, from the Glass Lyre Press. This is from their website:

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Tomas O’Leary is a poet, translator, music-maker, singer, artist, and expressive therapist. His new and selected poems from Lynx House Press is In the Wellspring of the Ear. Previous books of poetry include Fool at the Funeral, The Devil Take a Crooked House, and A Prayer for Everyone. A teacher for many years – college, high school, elementary, adult ed) – he has worked for the past couple of decades with folks who have Alzheimer’s, playing Irish accordion and eliciting cognitive and emotional responses through songs, stories, poems, and free-wheeling conversation. He grew up in Somerville, long before it became the Paris of New England.

Come hear members of the local Salvadoran community tell their stories and talk about their work in Somerville’s neighborhoods! Panelists include: a social documentary photographer who exhibits throughout New England, a local leader who works to build the collective power of immigrants, a community engagement specialist who assists Spanish speakers across the city, and a pastor whose sermons are heard throughout Latin America.

Somerville’s Fair Housing Commission’s webinar covers information that includes the Fair Housing Act and protected classes, how to spot discriminatory practices by realtors, and what to do if you’re facing housing discrimination.