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Well, I have worked in the trenches of community journalism for about 23 years now. Physical newspapers have gone the way of digital media. But still, I must admit, I get the physical New York Times and The Boston Globe at my favorite coffee shop. I must look like a historical reenactor to many of the younger folks out there.

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Susan Isla Tepper is a twenty-year writer who works in all genres. Currently, she has focused on playwrighting. Her play The Crooked Heart, concerning painter Jackson Pollock, had a staged-reading at the Irish Repertory Theatre in autumn, 2022. www.susantepper.com/theatre. Several other plays are making the rounds in NYC and Ireland. Tepper has been named a “Brand Ambassador” for The Galway Review. She has published 11 books of fiction and poetry. Several new novels will be released later this winter and on into the year. Her many awards include a Pulitzer Prize Nomination, over 20 Pushcart Nominations, a Winner in the Francis Ford Coppola Award for the Novel (2003), Second Place Winner in Story/South, and other honors. Her short stories aired at NPR, and were staged at Inter/Act Theatre in Philadelphia. Before taking up the writing life, Tepper worked as a method actor, professional singer with several known rock and country artists, a cable TV producer for Time Warner, flight attendant for TWA, Marketing Manager at Northwest Airlines in NYC, interior decorator, rescue worker and more. This varied life, Tepper believes, has done a lot to inform her writings.

Youth Workshops and Donation Drive for Unhoused Residents

Mayor Katjana Ballantyne, and Somerville’s Department of Racial and Social Justice (RSJ), are announcing two programs celebrating the life and legacy of  Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in observance of Martin Luther King Day. To provide an opportunity for youth to intensively engage in the work of the civil rights leader, a youth writing and dialog series will launch in advance of the holiday. To allow all to model the good works of Dr. King, a drive for donations of winter items needed for unhoused residents will launch the week of the holiday.

Warming Center will also provide access to hot meals, bathrooms and safe sleeping spaces for residents experiencing homelessness 

Mayor Katjana Ballantyne, the City of Somerville’s Health and Human Services Office, and Housing Families, are announcing the opening of an overnight warming center for the remainder of the winter 2024 season. Starting tonight, January 8, the warming center will operate seven nights a week from 6:45 p.m. to 7 a.m., on the second floor of the Armory (191 Highland Ave). The center is scheduled to conclude operations on Sunday, March 24, 2024. 

Gencores of Somerville  will receive a $319,002 grant to support the construction of a custom facility that will develop novel foam metamaterials for cost-and weight-sensitive industries, such as automotive and wind energy.

AeroShield in Boston and Gencores in Somerville will use M2I2 Grants to boost advanced materials research, reach new markets, spur job growth

The Healey-Driscoll Administration announced two new grants from the state’s Massachusetts Manufacturing Innovation Initiative (M2I2) to AeroShield of Hyde Park and Gencores of Somerville.

Move cars from city lots by 6:00 p.m. Sunday

The City of Somerville’s snow emergency will end Sunday, Jan. 7, at 4:00 p.m., and normal parking rules will resume at that time. The information below offers tips to avoid ticketing and towing as well as strategies for being a good neighbor and staying safe.

“Museo Inmigrante: Stories of Resilience from Somerville’s Padres Latinos” will be the featured exhibition at the Somerville Museum January 11– March 23, 2024.

Somerville Museum presents a Community  Collaboration Project with Somerville’s Padres Latinos. Padres Latinos is a mutual aid group of more than 230 Spanish and Portuguese-speaking parents with children in the Somerville Public Schools (SPS). The group formed during the COVID-19 pandemic to advocate for SPS Latino students and reduce or eliminate the achievement gap between Latino students and their peers. The group also strengthens its community by sharing information about food, education, cultural opportunities, and housing resources.

Thursday, January 4, 2024, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) visited Somerville to celebrate the $2.4 million in federal funding she secured to support the community-led transformation of the Clarendon Hill housing community, an ethnically, linguistically and economically diverse neighborhood in Somerville. The federal dollars delivered by Rep. Pressley will help increase safe and affordable housing, promote accessibility for residents with disabilities, and support the development of green and open community space for residents.