Planning a weekly coffeehouse at the Trinity Church Parish House in Oak Bluffs, organizers are seeking performers from the Island or beyond.

The coffeehouse, to start in late November, suggests patrons bring the great conversation, and organizers will provide refreshments, taking up a free-will offering to help offset the cost.

Performers would perform free in return for this open venue. Organizers say they are open to anything respectful, family-friendly and clean.

Fishing slowed to a trickle this past weekend for the participants in the 63rd annual Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby. And the rainy, windy weather didn’t help.

Some of the 2,000 anglers may have been out there, but few came home with dinner. Weighmaster Roy Langley said he weighed in half a dozen fish a day through the weekend. Mr. Langley shares weighmaster duties with Charlie Smith, who works the scales at night.

The Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities has awarded matching grants totaling $48,645 in support of eight humanities projects in communities across the state. Five of the grants, totaling $33,645, were made under the theme Liberty and Justice for All for projects that explore these fundamental principles in American political life and their interplay, past and present.

Martha’s Vineyard Community Services on Wednesday unveiled a strategic plan to grow in services, size and funding over the next five years, but within a year the organization expects to have better services in place for Islanders with drug and alcohol problems.

Talks already are underway between community services and the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, with help from the department of public health, to coordinate care for Islanders with substance abuse or mental health concerns.

They are artists and painters of the plein air variety, and of course friends and nearly neighbors. Hermine Hull and Leslie Baker both live in West Tisbury. They paint together often, sometimes several times a week. Never at a loss for words, Hermine is chatty and outgoing, while Leslie is quiet and introspective. But, like the walking path that runs behind the West Tisbury fire station between their two houses, they are connected.

Interviews By Julia Rappaport

All Martha’s Vineyard ponds have been closed to most shellfishing and could remain so for a week or more, as a result of the heavy rainfalls of the past few days.

A mandatory statewide closure was ordered on Sunday by the Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF), out of concern that oysters, quahaugs and softshell clams could be contaminated by dangerous bacteria.

However, the scallop season will begin in Edgartown as planned tomorrow.

It was the Vineyard’s wettest weekend with gutters overflowing, but the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Hall in West Tisbury was overflowing with people for Saturday’s Living Local Harvest Festival.

The two-day event began on Friday night with a panel discussion at the Chilmark Community Center and continued all day on Saturday with workshops, demonstrations and plenty of home-grown food as well as food for thought.

There was an exhibit on Island wool, bottles of Island-made honey and bags of Island-grown produce.

The proponents of a new emergency services building for Tisbury have decided to drop one article from the warrant for tonight’s special town meeting, hoping it will increase the chances of acceptance of the rest of the plan.

The meeting, which starts at 7:30 p.m. at the Tisbury School gymnasium, will first seek approval for a new site for the emergency services, and second to borrow up to $640,000 for design work.

David D. Willey, the Cape Air pilot who died in a plane crash in the woods of West Tisbury Friday night, was remembered by family, friends and colleagues yesterday as an expert pilot, an avid learner and a family man with a wry sense of humor. He was 61.

“He was a great pilot, an exemplary human being,” Cape Air founder, chief executive officer and fellow pilot Daniel Wolf said yesterday. “This was a special person and it’s a huge loss for the company. It’s a devastating thing for the family.”

An experienced Cape Air pilot and Vineyard Haven resident was killed on Friday night in single plane crash in the woods off State Road in West Tisbury. It was the first fatal Cape Air crash in the history of the airline.