The Yard promises a high-energy, laugh aloud evening of work by three very different artists: Jamal Jackson Dance Company (African/hip hop/contemporary dance), performance artist Claire Porter, and solo dancer Lorraine Chapman share the stage on Friday and Saturday, August 1 and 2 at 8 p.m., with a free family matinee on Saturday at 4 p.m. at The Yard, Middle Road in Chilmark.

Vineyard Playhouse patrons might be forgiven for a feeling of deja vu when viewing the lineup of mainstage shows Cambridge’s new Central Square Theatre selected for its first season. Two shows opened this past weekend — QED: An Evening with Richard Feynman and Coming Up for Air, An AutoJazzography — and both productions were developed on the stage on Church street, Vineyard Haven.

Concerned that the Bush administration has stepped up its threats against Iran, peace groups, including the Martha’s Vineyard Peace Council, are holding No War on Iran rallies on Saturday, August 2. The Vineyard rally will be at Five Corners at 1 p.m.

Organizer Chris Fried notes that on July 22, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned that Iran had two weeks to halt its development of nuclear energy or face further “punitive measures.” That deadline will expire on Tuesday, August 5.

For details, call Mr. Fried at 508-693-7741.

Che’s Lounge hosts an eclectic Poetry and Music Jam on Monday, August 4. The show begins at 7:30 p.m. and features the Hot Words Collective — Justen Ahren (Jen Brown’s Brother), Samantha Barrow, Linda Black, Richard C. Skidmore, Michael West and Ben Williams.

Temperature: Precip.

Day Max. Min. Inches.

Fº Fº

July 25 76 68 2.47

July 26 79 64 Trace

July 27 82 69 .00

July 28 82 64 1.01

July 29 82 67 Trace

July 30 86 66 .00

July 31 82 69 .02

Water temperature in Edgartown harbor: 76º F.

The Chappaquiddick Summer Music Festival concludes its 2008 season on Thursday, August 7 at 8 p.m. with a performance by violinist Jennifer Koh and pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute. The program includes sonatas by Mozart, Brahms and Bartok.

Former CIA lawyer Vicki Divoll will deliver a talk titled Memo to Our New President: How to Fix Eight Years of Damage to U.S. Intelligence on Wednesday, August 6 at 5:30 p.m. at the Chilmark Public Library.

Ms. Divoll, former assistant general counsel for the CIA and former general counsel of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is presently teaching American government at the United States Naval Academy. She has also served as a fellow at Harvard University Institute of Politics.

Carol Craven Gallery welcomes the public to an artists’ reception on Sunday, August 3, for exhibitions of the following gallery artists:

Christie Scheele’s show Changing Winds, her fifth with the gallery, is a selection of atmospheric landscape paintings of Martha’s Vineyard and New York.

It was a sensual delight and a writer’s demise, a step into a clichéd “different world.” Hypnotic trance reggae beats were clearly amplified from a Macintosh laptop computer. The transition was complete with a climate change, from the cool breeze off of Oak Bluffs’ Sunset Lake to the protected cove of Suesan Stovall’s garage. But this is not merely a garage, and this is not, in fact, a different world. It is a familiar and proximate one, only a few minutes from the main drag and harbor in Oak Bluffs.

Ellen Liman has long had a love affair with Martha’s Vineyard — in particular with Vineyard beaches, Vineyard Sound and Vineyard flowers. But her love affair is more than that of the usual seasonal visitor. She’s been coming to the Island for 22 years. Each day she takes out her oil paints and canvases and, in vivid colors, reproduces for Island walls and the walls of Vineyard-loving off-Islanders what she sees in nature.