With its water-themed issue on the stands, National Geographic will continue to focus on this most precious resource on Martha’s Vineyard this weekend with the launch of the new book Written in Water: Messages of Hope for Earth’s Most Precious Resource and the premiere of its film Shark Eden. Events on Saturday and Sunday bring world-renowned authors, activists, filmmakers and musicians together for a festival called Water Is Life, cosponsored by the Island nonprofit group World Waterway.
Kathryn Aaron, an established interpreter of 16th and 17th century music, will perform at Trinity Episcopal Church in Oak Bluffs, on Sunday, July 25, accompanied by Trinity organist Wesley Brown.
A graduate of the Peabody Conservatory of Music, Ms. Aaron is studying for her master’s degree at Yale’s Institute of Sacred Music. She has performed internationally and is a member of the choir of Trinity Episcopal Church in Southport, Conn.
The Martha’s Vineyard High School Minnesingers are coming and, well, the holiday season on the Island wouldn’t be complete without them. Go hear the concert this weekend or go one better and hang out with high schoolers at the Martha’s Vineyard Preservation Trust soiree held tonight, Dec. 9, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Dr. Daniel Fisher House in Edgartown.
The concerts take place at the Old Whaling Church today, Dec. 9, at 8 p.m. and tomorrow, Dec. 10, at 4 p.m.
As A Witness, a Christmas pageant for the 21st century, will be performed at the Old Whaling Church on Sunday, Dec. 18, and Monday, Dec. 19.
The production features music ranging from medieval carols such as The Angel Gabriel Came Down, and O Come All Ye Faithful to modern gospel music including Rise Up Shepherd and Follow, and He Had Done Great Things for Me.
The Martha’s Vineyard Poets Society presents a Winter Solstice celebration of poetry and song, beginning at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 21.
The evening features twelve poets including Justen Ahren, Ellie Bates, Jill Jupen, Francesca Kelly, Lee McCormack, Clark Myers, Fan Ogilvie, Barbara Peckham, Valerie Sonnenthal, Daniel Waters, William Waterway and Michael West.
The Tisbury School fourth graders are getting set to take you inside the minds of the ant and grasshopper and also up the beanstalk with dear Jack as he tries to search for his missing cow. The results are not your grandfather’s well-worn fables.
The kids have written the story, built the sets, created the music; heck they have done everything but fill the seats. That’s where you come in.
For those on the Vineyard who have witnessed the past two summer productions from the PigPen Theatre Company you know what it means to be completely transported, body and soul, to, without gilding the lily one bit, a place of imagination so powerful adults have been known to become toddlers on the spot: mute, with finger outstretched and prone to falling down in fits of giggles and wonderment. Kids, well, they simply become transfixed, the feeling so strong they refuse to watch television for weeks afterwards. It just doesn’t compare.
Back in 1996, yes that is now a long time ago, the Island Community Chorus sounded its first note. Since that time the choral group, led by director Peter Boak, has performed year-round on the Island. The group has gained a loyal following and by staying true to its roots as a group open to anyone with no auditions required, it has remained an Island institution.
Chiddy Bang, the rap duo currently in possession of a Guinness Book World Record for the longest freestyle rap coming in at nine hours, 15 minutes and 15 seconds, played, alas, a somewhat shorter set at the Stars and Stripes festival held at Nectar’s on Saturday night.
The event was a benefit for the YMCA and produced by Neon Gold Records, a record company run by Chilmark summer residents Derek Davies and Lizzy Plapinger. The evening also featured The Knocks, French Horn Rebellion and Savoir Adore.
Not to start on too bossy a note, but do go out and catch all five plays and musical productions of the African American Theatre Festival being performed, mostly, at the Vineyard Playhouse and running this week through early September.
The festival began this past Wednesday with Root, a one-woman play written and performed by Vanessa German and directed by Heather Arnet. The play travels from 1980s Los Angeles to the Civil Rights marches of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to drug-saturated Juarez, Mexico to a battered and drenched New Orleans.
