Writers Open Mike

Every Tuesday night from 7:15 to 8:30 p.m., the Bunch of Grapes Bookstore in Vineyard Haven hosts a Writer’s Open Mike night, a continuation of the popular gathering begun in March. The event is run and organized by Hannah Vanderlaske and Jess Dupon from the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School. Writers interested in reading their work should arrive at 7 p.m. sharp to put their names on the list. Readers will be given five minutes apiece; all genres of work are accepted and encouraged.

This month, the Island’s premiere food magazine, Edible Vineyard, celebrates its one-year anniversary by teaming up with Featherstone Center for the Arts for an exhibition, titled The Art of Food. The show features work by over ten Island artists, ranging from photography to food-themed painted rocks by Cammie Naylor to Nina Carelli’s food-inspired etchings.

The process of fermentation makes food more digestible and nutritious. When consumed on a regular basis, sauerkraut and fermented vegetables help maintain the acid-alkaline balance of the body, strengthen the immune and nervous systems and contribute to overall health.

Earth Day, that boisterous, mass and grass roots celebration of the planet and how we can stop smutching it, began 40 years ago with millions of college students protesting, some wearing gas masks to show their concern about pollution. Now, some young singles are hoping to meet their eco-other in Earth Day Speed Dating (“Are you looking for a randy recycler? Do you consider yourself a charismatic composter?”), in just one of thousands of events registered with the Earth Day Network.

Oak Bluffs voters were in a stingy mood Tuesday during the first night of their annual town meeting, as they shot down a proposal to increase the hotel rooms tax by two per cent and stripped most town elected officials of their stipends. Only a modest increase in the meals tax was approved on a night that saw little progress on a warrant freighted with complicated spending decisions.

The meeting was adjourned just before 11 p.m. and continues tonight at 7 p.m. at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School.

The Vineyard’s Wampanoag tribe is preparing to mount a legal challenge to the Cape Wind project.

In a press release on Monday, the tribe announced it had retained counsel and gave as its reason the fact that the federal Interior Department had declined the tribe’s latest request for a meeting.

Interior Secretary Kenneth Salazar already has held several meetings, on the Vineyard, the Cape and in Washington, with tribal spokesmen who oppose the plan to build a wind farm on Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound.

Our Island Club this week announced the distribution of their 2009 donations and scholarships. More than 160 Island organizations will share in over $36,000 in donations.

This year, scholarships will be established for the Permanent Endowment Fund for higher education, two high school vocational programs (auto mechanics and building trade), the Vineyard Nursing Association, Featherstone Center for the Arts and Martha’s Vineyard Community Services’ early childhood development program.

Colorful, reusable bags are available to carry your books and DVDs home from the Vineyard Haven Public Library for $1; the Friends of Vineyard Haven Library sells these eco-friendly polypropylene bags featuring the library logo to help reduce the use of plastic bags by library patrons.

CPR for Restaurant Staff

The American Red Cross will offer a Chokesaver for Restaurant Emergencies training class on April 10 from 1 to 3 p.m. at Cottager’s Corner in Oak Bluffs. Registration is available online atcciredcross.org or by calling toll-free to 508-775-1540.