*

Take steps to protect yourself against COVID-19 and the flu this winter. Somerville’s Health and Human Services department is hosting free vaccine clinics on Thursday, February 15, at Somerville Public Library Central Branch (79 Highland Ave.) from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. and February 29 at the SomerViva Office of Immigrant Affairs (42 Cross St.) from 3 to 5 p.m.

Walk-ins welcome. To learn more and register, visit somervillema.gov/vaccines.

This week the Union Square Neighborhood Council (USNC) and US2 signed an amendment to their Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) that paves the way for the development of a 51-unit affordable housing project in Union Square.

Deano’s Pasta in Somerville offers freshly made pasta and other items made from locally sourced ingredients.

By Bridget Frawley

Off of Garfield Avenue in Somerville is an industrial bright red and white building featuring various murals of assorted pasta and factory machinery. 15 Garfield Ave. houses both a pasta factory where over 100 different types of dry, fresh and frozen pasta are produced each day, but also a shop open to the public to purchase pasta and sauces.

Grab your spouse, partner, roommate, bestie, sibling, or anyone you love and join in for a very special event. The Somerville Museum is open for special hours this Valentine’s Day, 6:00 p.m. –9:00 p.m., 1 Westwood Rd. Visit the current exhibition, Museo Inmigrante, and enjoy a photoshoot with award-winning photographer, Iaritza Menjivar. They’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. For more information visit: www.somervillemuseum.org.

In collaboration with Somerville Bike Kitchen, the Dojo @ Somernova, the Somerville Foundation, and Groundwork Somerville have a new subset of the Green Team: the Biking Division.

*

Calzones offer the perfect canvas for whatever flavors you desire. You can make it with cold cuts, spinach, broccoli rabe, collard greens, your favorite cheese, meatballs, and so on. It can be served as a meal with a green salad or as an appetizer. You can make ahead and serve at room temperature. The combinations are endless.

The President’s Day holiday puts us in mind of those great leaders who governed throughout our country’s tumultuous history: The American Revolution, the Civil War, two world wars, the Great Depression, the Civil Rights movement, Vietnam, and so on.

*

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.