Arts & Entertainment
Fresh from their triumphal concert tours of Paris and Prague, you might almost expect the Minnesingers back on Island to be busy calling their agents from moviestudio trailers. But no, they’re still the great, glowing, unprepossessing kids they’ve always been, and they put all their talent, all their joy into this past weekend’s performances on their home stage at the performing arts center at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School.
When Elizabeth Murray was 16 years old, she had already seen far too much of the unforgiving side of life, and she had begun to ask herself if what she knew was all there was. What she knew was that she’d recently buried her mother, who died of AIDS, in a donated pine box with her name misspelled on it. Mr. Murray’s addict father, who was suffering from AIDS himself in a homeless shelter elsewhere in New York city, could not attend. Ms. Murray herself had dropped out of high school and was homeless.
Creative Writing Classes
The Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing will once again be offering classes at its summer seminar taking place during the week of July 18. The institute has also added a one week summer camp this year for high school students. The writers’ camp will run July 11 through 15 and be held at the charter school.
Parenting Teens
The joys of parenting are endless but so are the difficulties. Each year brings new challenges as children grow older and more independent. The teenage years can be the most difficult to navigate.
With this in mind, the Dukes County Health Council and Youth Task Force are sponsoring a talk by Martha B. Straus entitled Dangerous Transitions: Parenting Teens with Heart and Courage. The talk will be held at the YMCA on Wednesday, May 18 from 7 to 8:30 p.m.
Minnesingers Encore
In Paris the audiences screamed oui, oui. In Prague it was prosim, prosim prídavek (yes, yes, encore). And here on the Vineyard we begin by saying, Welcome back to the high school Minnesingers.
After taking Europe by storm, they perform for us this weekend at their annual spring show at the high school performing arts center. Bravo.
Downdogging at Home
Want to do more yoga but schedule’s too full to get to a class? Or maybe the cost of weekly classes has been just too much to bear. But what’s the alternative? Shallow breathing and road rage? Wait, there is another way. How about creating a 21-minute home practice with the help of Sherry Sidoti at Fly Yoga.
