Somerville Media Center has a great batch of upcoming workshops and events that will hopefully spark your interest. A new year is indeed for a new you” after all, right?

Upcoming SMC workshops:

 Designing Graphics for Video with Photoshop and Premiere

February 2, 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. at Somerville Media Center, 90 Union Square. Sign at https://www.somervillemedia.org/designinggraphicsforvideo/

Learn Adobe Creative Suite typography tools to take your video productions to the next level. Make templates for titles, lower thirds and over-the-shoulder graphics in Adobe Photoshop and Premiere and learn how alpha channel graphics work. If time allows, the class will end with an introduction to Adobe Illustration.

Somerville resident and accomplished poet, Schwartz will serve a two-year term.

The City of Somerville announced this week its third Poet Laureate, Lloyd Schwartz. Schwartz is a Somerville resident with an impressive literary background including his current work as the Frederick S. Troy Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts Boston. His poetry collections include These People; Goodnight, Gracie; Cairo Traffic; and most recently, Little Kisses (University of Chicago Press). His poems have been published in, among many other journals, The New Yorker, Poetry, The Atlantic, The New Republic, Paris Review, Kenyon Review, Agni, Consequence, and Ploughshares, and have been selected for the Pushcart Prize, The Best American Poetry (three times), and The Best of the Best American Poetry.

(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.)

By Mayor Joseph Curtatone

A monthly look at ways to get involved with your city: Don’t just live in Somerville, be Somerville!

 Submit a Response to the Shared Mobility Survey by January 18
If you have about 15 minutes to spare, we would appreciate your responses to a shared mobility survey that will help us plan for certain aspects of Somerville’s future transportation needs. The survey has questions about how you currently get around and questions about transportation options you might consider in the future, with an emphasis on autonomous vehicles. Your answers will help City transportation planners and our research and development partners at Audi understand Somerville’s current and future needs. The survey is available at www.somervillema.gov/sharedmobility.

Somerville Police Department detectives are working to identify the pictured individual in relation to the fraudulent use of a credit card that was stolen in a house burglary.

Anyone who recognizes the individual from the attached surveillance photos is asked to contact Detective Thermidor at (617) 625-1600 x 7231.

By Jim Clark

On the evening of January 2, a Somerville Police officer queried a license plate was attached to a pickup truck and found that the vehicle had been reported stolen in December of 2018.

The officer stopped the vehicle on Holland St. in front of Hodgkins Park. As other officers arrived to assist, the driver, later identified as Angelo Devito, was ordered to shut off the engine and step out of the truck.

Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

It doesn’t have to be near Father’s Day to talk about dads.

I started thinking about my dad recently when my boys were back home rehearsing with their band this past weekend. I love when the boys are both home. Their band, Mallcops, has a show coming up February 2 at The Democracy Center, 45 Mount Auburn St., Cambridge. Having the kids back at the house got me thinking of my dad.

The 2019 Somerville Maple Syrup Project kicks off on Sunday, January 27 with the Tapping of the Trees event outside Tufts University’s Tisch Library.

This January, the annual Somerville Maple Syrup Project returns for its 16th season, beginning with a local maple tree tapping and culminating in the annual Maple Syrup Boil Down Festival on March 16th at Groundwork Somerville’s urban farm at 138 South St.

The Board of Aldermen is looking for answers after a year-long wait to set specific policies on how to react in cases of violent incidents in public buildings and schools.

By Jim Clark

A dual set of orders put forward at the latest regular meeting of the Somerville Board of Aldermen called on the Chief of Police, in conjunction with the Administration, advise the Board of the protocol for notifying the public and families when there is an incident in a public building and on specific school-related safety policies and procedures.

Operations Director at Higher Ground Farm Lindsay Allen will be giving a talk on urban gardening at the Somerville Central Library on Thursday, January 24. — Photo courtesy of Higher Ground Farm

By Jared Kimler

The Somerville Central Library will be hosting urban farmer Lindsay Allen for a talk on urban gardening on Thursday, January 24 at 6:00 p.m. Allen is Operations Director at Higher Ground Farm and manages Boston Medical Center’s (BMC) rooftop farm. This is the kickoff event for the library’s Food for Thought initiative.

Pictured above are the Troop 71 St. Clements Boy Scouts singing Christmas Songs in front of Johnnie’s Super Market in Ball Square from around 1965 (courtesy of Jimmy Del Ponte)

 Somerville Heroes by Stephanie Hirsch

The holidays and New Years are a season when many people set goals and reflect on the year passed. In this month’s Somerville Heroes’ column, I’m honoring a few people whose stories inspire me to invite new people into my life in 2019.

Anna and Mike: During the winter holidays, many of us turn inward, to spend time with family or close friends or even in peaceful solitude. However, some people make even the quiet holidays into joyful community holidays. They organize parties or caroling outings, bring Girl Scout troops to nursing homes, or invite people over who are too far from family to travel or who come from a different faith tradition.