Always wanted to write comedy? Find your comedic voice and take your ideas from page to stage in a four-day intensive comedy writing and performing workshop with Emmy-winning original Saturday Night Live writer Anne Beatts. The workshop will culminate in a live performance following the Saturday family matinee.

Columbia University professor and former provost Jonathan Cole will discuss The Great American University: Its Rise to Preeminence, Its Indispensable National Role and Why It Must Be Protected, on Thursday, August 12, at 8 p.m. at Chilmark Community Center

All About Wampum

Archaeologist and educator Dr. Jim Bradley will discuss the Native American money system in a talk called Visiting Wampum: Dutch Archaeology in Albany and Environs, on Thursday, August 12 at 5:30 p.m. as part of the Martha’s Vineyard Museum’s archaeology lecture series.

Dr. Bradley’s lecture will explore what wampum is, where it came from, and the many roles it played in the lives of native peoples and the Europeans during the 17th century.

Literature at Lighthouse

A special evening program called Ships and Sailors, with a tour of the Edgartown Lighthouse, music, and grog and hardtack for the little ones, will take place at the lighthouse on Friday, August 13, from 6 to 8 p.m.

For more than 25 years a nonprofit group on the Vineyard has worked creatively to help keep personal disputes from building into court cases that burden the judicial system and often cost the people in conflict more than they win when the court makes a ruling.

Quarter Century in Eden

Eden Market and Garden Center is celebrating 25 years; on Friday, August 13 the garden center will host a party from 4 to 7 p.m. with games, gifts and prizes. Admission is free; all are welcome.