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Somerville has a large population of Brazilian folks. Where I live in Union Square there is a large Brazilian Market and before the pandemic, a Brazilian butcher. There are still a number of Brazilian businesses peppered around the streets of our city, and this ethnic group makes big contributions to our collective culture. So I was lucky to speak to Rejane Musis about her program to educate kids about Portuguese and Brazilian culture.

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Poet Mike Steffen writes: “I recently watched the 1945 MGM movie with Judy Garland Meet Me in Saint Louis, which piqued my interest in the 1904 World Fair there, called “The Louisiana Purchase World Fair.” I came across this colossal statue of the Roman god of the forge, Vulcan, while browsing the Internet for info on the Fair. At one point, the huge statue, the largest free-standing iron-cast statue in the world, lay in its cast sections in the Birmingham fairgrounds (after it had been returned from Saint Louis) and I came across the epigraph quote, “children would often play around the disassembled statue”. As it stands on its towering pedestal today on Red Mountain in Birmingham, the backside of the statue, in the classical Italian style, reveals the naked deity’s bare bottom, facing toward the suburb of Homewood, and there is apparently a song there sung as a joke, Moon Over Homewood.”

Arrests:
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 Alex Payne, January 20, 12:57 p.m., arrested at Washington St. on charges of unarmed robbery and threat to commit a crime.

A Support Group for Individuals who love someone involved with opioids. The group is designed to provide not only an understanding of Opioid Misuse and Abuse, but also the impact of substance abuse/addiction on families as well as prevention strategies. This program is free.

The Growing Center is happy to announce their Annual Seed Sale Fundraiser. They are again partnering with High Mowing Seeds from Vermont, who offers them a percentage of seed sales to help support the Growing Center’s activities.

Mobile Producer Kits

Somerville Media Center members may borrow kits containing everything that enables them to produce at home. The three kits are:

• DSLR Kit containing a DSLR Camera, Microphone, Batteries
• XA35 Kit containing a XA35 Camcorder, Microphone, Batteries
• Editing Laptop with external Microphone and ready-to-go software: Zoom, Audacity, Final Cut ProX and DaVinci Resolve

Somerville’s 100 Homes program is now accepting applications to be added to its affordable housing waitlist. Eligible applicants include people facing displacement, Section 8 voucher holders, and households earning between 80% and 100% of the area median income.