The Midnight Train to Georgia will be stopping on Massachusetts avenue this Saturday to support the campaign efforts of Stacey Abrams, candidate for governor of Georgia. She is the very talented former state legislator who began an aggressive voter registration campaign in her state in 2014 that many believe led to the strong turnout that propelled both Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff to the United States Senate and that delivered a narrow victory for President Joe Biden in Georgia.

As the founder and former leader of The New Georgia project, she has sought to organize to lead a statewide, multi-racial, multi-generational, cross-class movement to build a new Georgia that works for all. She is a graduate of Spelman College and Yale Law School, and was the 2022 commencement speaker for her college alma mater. Georgia on my mind!

Hundreds have arrived in anticipation of the 20th Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival. In addition to the art and film screenings, there is also a book interview on deck for the public. Former Attorney General Eric Holder has recently authored Our Unfinished March, focusing on the illusive promise of voting rights for all Americans. He will be interviewed by Cathy Hughes, founder and chair of Urban One, Inc. and TV One. Sponsored by the MVAAFF and the Union Chapel Educational and Cultural Institute, it will be held at 6 p.m. on Thursday, August 11 at the Martha’s Vineyard Performing Arts Center. This event is just one of many organized by national best-selling author and marketing guru James Hester.

Jim and Susan Schwartz, Geralyn Dreyfous, Sharon Rockefeller, Sarah and Bob Nixon and Dyllan McGhee led an inquisitive group last Tuesday night, anxious to preview excerpts from Professor Henry Louis Gates’s latest documentary, Making Black America. It is scheduled to premiere this fall on PBS. The Jamaican-inspired lobster and grilled jerk chicken satisfied the palette as Skip Gates thanked new members of his Inkwell Society, whose contributions help fund his work. The fall cannot come quickly enough to see the entire two-hour production.

Nikole Hannah-Jones — Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and creator of The 1619 Project — will be joined by Kahlil Gibran Muhammed and Dr. Kellie Carter Jackson on August 10 at 4 p.m. at Union Chapel. They will be discussing Race and American History. Dr. Muhammed is the Ford Foundation Professor of History, Race and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. Dr. Carter Jackson comes to us from Wellesley College, where she teaches humanities and Africana studies.

Rev. Otis Moss Jr. will take the pulpit at Union Chapel this Sunday. His magnetic delivery and his depth of Biblical knowledge provides a prism for him to focus on Howard Thurman’s disinherited. He will be joined this Sunday by the Festival Choir, directed by Bill Peek. Come out to see special guest director Mark Miller. Services begin at 10 a.m. Yes, come early!

Congratulations to Vineyard Preservation Trust trustee Shirley Hall for raising thousands of dollars to reopen the Flying Horses. The Trust hosted a small thank you for significant donors last Sunday. Shirley has been a major asset to the Trust in leading capital campaigns to preserve historic Vineyard properties.

Congrats to Bob and Dale Mnookin of Majors Cove on their many years of marriage.

Condolences are pouring in from all over the country to Dr. Jim Comer and family on the loss of his dear wife Bettye Fletcher Comer. Bettye was a tour de force on the Island who was loved and admired by many. Her remembrance service will be private.

Say it ain’t so, Beau. The Island has lost the fun-loving, gregarious heir to the family legacy of Ralf and Luella Coleman. He will be missed by many.

Paradise on earth is living the Vineyard experience. Enjoy it as life is fleeting!