Samba Chocolate, a performance of original samba music, will be presented for the first time at Che’s Lounge this Sunday, May 4, at 7 p.m. Inspired by a cold, dark winter, Island musicians Bella and Daniel Waters composed some hot and spicy music for nylon-stringed classical guitar and for cavaquinho, an authentic Brazilian four-stringed soprano guitar of Portuguese ancestry.

The Chilmark School and Windemere Nursing and Rehabilitation Center will be concluding this year’s inter-generational program with their annual photography show, called Growing Up Island.

Once again, the students were “buddied up” with Windemere residents in the fall. The students are given cameras (through a grant from the Permanent Endowment Fund) and asked to take photographs of their own lives. They bring their photographs down to Windemere when they visit their buddies each month.

Vineyard-born author A.F. Cook (known to many Islanders as the artist Anne Cook) recently published her first book, Democrats in the Red Zone: an Independent Voter’s Take on the Game of Political Perception. The book looks at the Democratic Party’s strategic failures through the lens of a football fan — specifically, a longtime New England Patriots fan.

One is a wampum jewelry designer. The other is a fiber artist. They share many things — friends, a love of Martha’s Vineyard, a penchant for creating — and this week, they will add one more to the list.

Modern art, commercialism and child development collide in the documentary My Kid Could Paint That, screening this Saturday at the Katharine Cornell Theatre in the Martha’s Vineyard Film Society series.

Parents all watch and admire as their offspring first pick up a paint brush; most encourage their children to express themselves through art. But what happens when it turns out that a child might be a true prodigy — with parents willing to go to great lengths to convince the world of her genius?

CROSSED, a Tale of the Fourth Crusade. By Nicole Galland. Harper Paperbacks, New York, N.Y. 2008. 641 pages. $15.95 softcover.

Blending history with humor is a great way to communicate and Vineyard native Nicole Galland achieves this tender mix in her latest novel, Crossed, A Tale of the Fourth Crusade, in which she brings to life a disastrous medieval holy war.

The Louisa Gould Gallery is celebrating the completion of its winter renovations, reopening today with its annual Spring Show.

The artists’ reception will be tomorrow, Saturday, May 3, from 5 to 7 p.m. with refreshments and appetizers created by chef Liberty Russell. All are welcome to kick off season.

Artists exhibiting work in the Spring Show are: Caryn King, Donna Malcomber Blackburn, Pia Post, Ovid Ward, Maya Farber, Louisa Gould, Carolyn Warren, Leslie S. Smith, James Masek and Washington Ledesma.

The IMPers will present a night of improvised theatre next Friday, May 9, at 7:30 p.m. at the Katharine Cornell Theatre on Spring street in Vineyard Haven.

This two-act show will include two types of improv: first, short-form improvised games and skits — a fast-paced act with lots of audience participation as well as laughs. Second, the troupe will take the stage to perform their Chicago-style, theatrical-based long-form improvisation. Based off a single suggestion, the troupe improvises a one-act play, usually lasting about 30 to 35 minutes.

Sounds of chattering teenagers filled the performance hall as they slowly gathered around the piano at the center of the stage. Dressed in causal clothing, some of it splashed with names of colleges they hope to attend next fall, these Island teens appeared relaxed in their role as international performers fresh off a seven-engagement tour of Austria.

After performing in the cathedrals, palaces and streets of Vienna, the Minnesingers this week were preparing for this weekend’s Island show, called Can You Dig It?

The Menemsha Fisheries Development Fund presents Securing a Future for Coastal Fishing Communities: Ideas from Eastern Maine on Wednesday, May 7, at 5:30 p.m. at the Chilmark Public Library.

Robin Alden, executive director of the Penobscot East Resource Center and former Maine commissioner of marine resources, and Ted Ames, life-long commercial fisherman, scientist and 2005 winner of a MacArthur Fellows Program award, will share their work.