Traci Smith went before the Oak Bluffs select board last week, requesting licenses for her proposed Martha’s Vineyard Black Book Festival inside and on the lawn of the Island Inn.

Carolina Cooney is stepping down from her role as executive director of Martha’s Vineyard Chamber of Commerce.

The Sankaty ferry was back up and running Monday after a crew shortage caused the Steamship Authority to cancel all of the freight ferry’s trips on Sunday.

A professional illustrator in the era before photojournalism, Percy Elton Cowen (1888-1923) created vivid images to accompany stories in Collier’s, Harper’s, Adventure and other magazines.

The boys and girls high school hockey teams had their playoff runs cut down this weekend, with the girls team losing 3-0 to Algonquin on Saturday and the boys losing 6-3 to Ashland on Sunday. 

The Martha’s Vineyard boys basketball team took home a win in the second round of playoffs Saturday, beating out Lynnfield 63-47. 

Maintenance work at the Island terminal is scheduled to start on Wednesday, meaning the Sankaty ferry that normally makes the first departure from the Island will be berthed in Woods Hole instead of Vineyard Haven. 

On Sunday morning the last quarter moon appears nearest to Antares, the brightest star in the zodiacal constellation Scorpius. For those living in the Southeastern United States and to the west, the moon will occult, pass over the star. For us, the two are just really close. The event takes place around 2 a.m. Sunday morning.

Scorpius is a constellation we associate mostly with summer. The constellation is one of the southernmost zodiac constellations. We all have memories of standing out on a summer night and looking South and seeing these stars appear right over the ocean.

The Vineyard girls and boys hockey teams were victorious in the first round of the playoffs Thursday with the girls winning a double overtime thriller 3-2 over Dedham and the boys soundly defeating Greenfield 10-0. 

Why Black History Month

Were it not for slavery

There would be no

Black History Month

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Or a Malcom X

No Barack Obama

Our first Black President

And arguably, no America

As we know it

Built on sweat and tears

Of free labor

Over hundreds of years

Making a young nation

Prominent and wealthy

Beneficiaries of a servitude

Both north and south

Until slaves were freed

Only to endure Jim Crow

Discrimination and segregation