Remy Tumin
Long gone are the days of Two-Buck Chuck that Stephanie Browne and her close group of girlfriends sipped throughout college. Cheap chardonnay and chablis have been replaced with a palette of curiosity, one that led them to form a wine club that eventually turned into Divas Uncorked. This weekend, the group of friends and their guests will host the fourth annual Wine and Food Festival, where Islanders and visitors will dine on the best food the Island has to offer accompanied by the best New England wine.
Living on an Island can seem closed off from the rest of the world, sometimes leaving you itching to reach the mainland so you can go faster than 45 miles per hour. But it does have its benefits: we leave our cars unlocked with the keys in the ashtray and our doors wide open.
And we use the honor system at unattended farm stands across the Island.
On a Tuesday afternoon, voice trills bounced around the grounds at the Yard off Middle Road in Chilmark. Some performers relaxed their diaphragms, lying on yoga mats on the floor of the barn studio. No dancers in tights or leotards ran in and out of the theatre on this day; opera singers have taken over the Yard for the next two weeks for the annual Yard Arts Opera performance.
If you’ve eaten a chocolate bar in the past year, you may have contributed to the world’s growing slavery program. Have a pair of Levi’s jeans? You’re mostly in the clear. Sporting a new pair of Sketchers? You may want to return them.
“There are so many invisible connections we have to slavery that we perpetuate without even knowing it,” said Brant Christopher, artist in residence for the anti-slavery organization Not For Sale. “We tell the story of what’s happening with human trafficking in the world today.”
The final numbers aren’t in quite yet, but an air of hope and patience remains at Martha’s Vineyard Community Services days after the 32nd annual Possible Dreams auction.
“We’re thoroughly pleased,” Community Services executive director Julia Burgess said yesterday. “We got well over $300,000 and we expect to get more.”
Ms. Burgess said the final number will not be available for two weeks and the tallying of the donations is ongoing as donations continue to come in.
The word is an odd collection of syllables. It sounds strange to many ears. And the Vineyard is the only place in the world where the word is used, most notably at the famous crossroad in the center of Chilmark. But have you ever stopped to think where the word beetlebung comes from?