Popular American singer-songwriter Greg Brown will perform at Oak Bluffs’ historic Union Chapel on Wednesday, July 16, at 8 p.m.

He is nationally known as a familiar presence on Prairie Home Companion and for his deep, thundering voice, unpretentious musical vision, humor and warmth. Fellow Iowan Bo Ramsey will open the concert and continue to play with Mr. Brown.

Abstract Art Course

This afternoon, July 15, Roberta Gross introduces a new course at Featherstone called Exploring the Elements of Abstract Art.

The course delves into the creation of abstract art, a process using the very basic elements of lines, geometric and biomorphic shapes, texture and color.

Ms. Gross designed the workshops for anyone willing to try new ideas, both new and experienced painters, regardless whether their style is representational or abstract.

The Rev. Shawn Wallace, associate pastor at African Methodist Episcopal Charles Street Church in Roxbury, will speak at Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs on Sunday, July 20. The service begins at 10 a.m. All are welcome.

Cancer Support Group

The Martha’s Vineyard Prostate Cancer Support Group is set to meet at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, July 16 in the downstairs board room of the middle building at Martha’s Vineyard Community Services, off the Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road, Oak Bluffs.

Welcome Jean

Caroline and Frank Flanders of West Tisbury announce the birth of a daughter, Jean Eleanor Flanders, on July 12 at Martha’s Vineyard Community Hospital. Jean weighed 8 pounds, 3 ounces at birth.

Eamonn Arrives

Nancy and Matthew Hawksbee of West Tisbury announce the birth of a son, Eamonn Martin Hawksbee, on July 9 at the Martha’s Vineyard Community Hospital.

Eamonn weighed 9 pounds, 8 ounces at birth.

Gardener’s Diary

The Polly Hill Arboretum welcomes HGTV host Erica Glasener for two programs. Horticulturist and author Ms. Glasener has hosted A Gardener’s Diary for 13 years. She interviews gardeners from all walks of life. On Wednesday, July 16, at 7:30 p.m. she will present On the Road with a Gardener’s Diary featuring stories of the intriguing people who have created the gardens featured on her show.

There is no state or federal grant money available to offset the damage wreaked by an Independence day fire which destroyed Café Moxie and decommissioned Bunch of Grapes Bookstore, according to state representative Eric T. Turkington who traveled to Vineyard Haven meet business owners and town leaders on Friday.

It was not so much a matter of life imitating art as of life contradicting art.

More than 30 years ago, when they were filming the movie Jaws on Martha’s Vineyard, a young Jonathan Searle played the part of a kid who scared people out of the water by using a fake fin to pretend to be a great white shark.

But just a few days ago the same Jonathan Searle played a different role. Not the guy who carries out the shark hoax, but the police officer who busts the guy who carried out the shark hoax.

After five years of lawsuits, appeals and bitter contention, the Martha’s Vineyard Commission on Thursday voted unanimously to approve a plan for an addition to the Oak Bluffs home of Joseph Moujabber, closing at least one chapter in the prolonged saga over the three-storey garage built without a permit back in 2003.

The approved plan among other things calls for the garage — dubbed garage mahal by critics — to be torn down and replaced by a new addition on the rear of Mr. Moujabber’s existing home on Sea View avenue extension.