Holly Near

Singer, songwriter and activist Holly Near performs with pianist John Buccino and guitarist Coleen Kittau at The Old Whaling Church on Sunday, July 22, at 7:30 p.m.

Ms. Near has a long history of using music for social activism. She was a 2005 nominee for a Nobel Peace Prize as one of the 1000 Women for Peace. She has performed on Broadway in the show Hair and in film and on television.

For more information, visit hollynear.com.

Dana Nunes perched naked on a pedestal of pillows and blankets inside a studio at Featherstone Center for the Arts.

“I get a kick out of the flea market go-ers who look through the window and back up . . . and then look again,” she said.

Ms. Nunes was the model for the Tom Maley Life Drawing class which last Tuesday morning was experiencing another full house, as the flea market was in bloom right outside the doors.

Class facilitator Anne Gallagher asked everyone to make room for old and new faces alike.

At the end of the dock in Menemsha Harbor sits a stately white yacht. At 75 feet, it can’t fit anywhere closer in the harbor. Inside the yacht, a woman often sits cross-legged in a bright sitting room, imagining far-off worlds full of romance and historical intrigue. She’s Kitty Pilgrim, CNN correspondent-turned-novelist, and she’s been hard at work writing her third book, while promoting, by boat, her latest release, The Stolen Chalice.

Many overlook Martha’s Vineyard in the off-season, when beaches no longer accommodate bikinis, business owners stow away their cash registers, and the Flying Horses cease to fly. But Phyllis Meras, author of In Every Season, recently released by Schiffer Publishing, has a great appreciation for this time of relative hibernation, for humans at least. For her, the off-season is when the familiar becomes mysterious, and the unrelenting cadence of nature’s course penetrates the human psyche.

Best-selling author and Chilmark resident Linda Fairstein has said that one of her greatest pleasures is the moment she holds in her hand a copy of her latest book. Fans will feel the same way on July 10 when Dutton publishes Night Watch, the latest of Ms. Fairstein’s engrossing crime fiction novels.

Lucas Brunelle is a man on a mission. The 41-year old Vineyard native wants to take people where they’ve never been before. That’s exactly what he does in Line of Sight, his first full-length film, a compilation of footage shot over the past 10 years from Mr. Brunelle’s unique vantage point: a two-camera set-up atop his bicycle helmet. Mr. Brunelle competes in grueling alleycat bike races all over the world.

Those attending the Arts Stroll in Oak Bluffs tomorrow, July 14, can expect paintings, sculptures and prints, naturally. But be prepared for capes and crowns, too.

Lucinda Sheldon of Lucinda’s Enamels, located at 11 Vineyard avenue, has dedicated a whole corner of her studio to decorative fabric capes and complementary felt crowns.

“I’m an artist,” she said, looking at her collection of fantasy costumes for kids, “But I’m also a grandmother.”

Lake Tashmoo has been closed to shellfishing as of Wednesday afternoon due to the presence of a potentially toxic algae bloom.

Tisbury town administrator John Bugbee said Thursday that people should not shellfish in the body of water, and should dispose of all shellfish recently caught there, as there is no way of knowing how long the algae bloom has been in place.

Signs are posted along the shore.

Pay Beach in Oak Bluffs has been reopened to swimming after water samples taken Wednesday came back negative for elevated levels of bacteria.

The beach was ordered closed Tuesday night, following one test that revealed higher than allowable levels of enterococcus, organisms that may indicate the presence of bacteria found in sewage.

Salvage work began off a remote beach in Aquinnah Thursday morning to remove some 800 gallons of fuel from a 46-foot Wesport lobster boat that went aground late Tuesday night.