Community
Featherstone Kicks Off Poetry Season
Be prepared to get word drunk on Thursday at 7 p.m. when poets Dawn Lundy Martin and Ronaldo V. Wilson read at Featherstone Center for the Arts in Oak Bluffs. The event is the kickoff to the summer poetry series at Featherstone which later in the summer will feature champion wordsmiths Billy Collins, Robert Pinsky, Tina Chang and Naomi Shihab Nye.
Lighthouse Challenge
Here’s a challenge that in reality is more of a delight. It’s the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber of Commerce fourth annual lighthouse challenge taking place Saturday, June 11 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The task is elementary but breathtaking. Visit all five lighthouses on the Island in one day. The list includes the lighthouse in Edgartown, East Chop, West Chop Lighthouses, Gay Head (Aquinnah) and Cape Pogue on Chappaquiddick, reachable only by an over-sand, four-wheel-drive vehicle.
Compost Tea Time
Polly Hill and pizza, it just rolls off the tongue. But where does compost fit into that pairing? In a series of upcoming events, of course.
On Saturday, June 11 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. the arboretum is hosting a compost tea workshop with Christopher Roddick, the head arborist at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and a certified master composter. Mr. Roddick will plant the seeds of how to make a perfect batch of compost tea. He will also discuss the relationship between plants and soil and how to improve plant and soil health.
Shucking Tournament
On your mark, get ready, shuck!
That’s right, all you armchair shuckers, time to get out of the seedbed and put your oyster knife where your mouth is. Nancy’s restaurant is holding its 2011 shucking contest this Saturday, June 11 from 1 to 4 p.m. Enter for glory or just come by to watch the shells fly. Best thing about a shucking contest is that you get to eat the winnings too. Sweetneck Oyster Farm is donating the oysters.
Pony Up
Meet the ponies at Netherfield Farm on Sunday, June 12 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
There will be dressage and jumping demonstrations, free pony rides, hot dogs on the grill and farm tours.
Netherfield Farm is located in Chilmark, 137 Old Kings Highway, off Meeting House Road.
For more details, call 508-645-2724 or visit netherfieldfarms.com.
Who can ask for more than to turn 100 looking better than ever, dancing into the next century with a bluegrass band crowd, plates filled high with cupcakes, and a happy crowd? We should all be so lucky. On Thursday night it was that kind of first-century birthday for the Vineyard Square Hotel and Suites, the Edgartown accommodations formerly known as the Colonial Inn.