The Jam'n Java Open Mic and Coffeehouse, open Fridays every month for 12 years, has been on a Covid-19 break from the Kickstand Cafe since March 2020, but shows continue virtually, this time at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 5.

Log in to SignupGenius to sign up to perform or attend the Jam'n Java Virtual Open Mic >>

 The deadline to sign up is the end of the day, Thursday, Oct. 14, the day before the virtual open mic.

Mystic Chorale invites all who love to sing to experience the thrill of reuniting live this fall, beginning Tuesdays, Sept. 14, through Nov. 24, from 7:30 to 9 p.m., at First Parish Unitarian, 630 Mass Ave. 

Sign up at mysticchorale.org.

During Covid, Mystic’s No. 1 priority is the health and safety of all. Close attention is being paid to the latest guidance from the CDC and other sources regarding the spread of the virus and its variants and recommended safety precautions and are setting safety protocols above and beyond what Massachusetts requires. 

All present at rehearsals will be required to show proof of full vaccination and wear masks. Singers will be seated at a safe distance from one another. As the season progresses, Mystic will continue to follow CDC and state guidelines and the latest advice from choral-singing experts regarding masking and other health protocols.

UPDATED,  Oct. 21: The Arlington Farmers' Market, managed by Patsy Kraemer, in its 24th year at 29 Mystic St., Russell Common lot, closes after Wednesday, Oct. 27, from 2 to 6:30 p.m.

From the Oct. 20 market newsletter: "Just one more week for the Farmers' Market. Last market is Oct. 27.

The Menotomy Grill & Tavern, 8 years old, is back to brewing live music Thursday nights now that Covid-19 has relented.

The pandemic closed the place in March 2020, and dining returned that June.

Barrence Whitfield performed starting at 9 p.m. Oct. 21. Plenty of parking, and never a cover.

The Return of ... Tom Petty Night

Saturday, Oct. 30, at 8 p.m.

... featuring Greg Klyma and members of Makin' Some Noise 

Proof of vaccination required as Nov. 1: 

Leland Stein, Regent co-owner, annoiunced Oct. 25: "After listening to your concerns, and having reviewed the industry studies and surveys pertaining to theater-goers, we have updated our Covid-19 safety requirements. 

UPDATED, Oct. 18:  New England Sculptors Association (NESA) has partnered with the Old Schwamb Mill and the Town of Arlington to mark the beginning of the fall season with an outdoor sculpture exhibition at Mill Pond Park, in front of the Old Schwamb Mill.

Come view and enjoy the six juried pieces that are available for purchase through the middle of November. The participating artists’ sculptures on view include Mid-Century Modern Heart by Cassie Doyon; Weedy Sea Dragon by Cassie Doyon; My Love by Memy Ish Shalom; Cat by Marin Murakoski; Colliding Worlds by R. Douglass Rice; and Dragoon by Dan Rocha.

Photos of sculptures

The mill was the host for a reception, held from 1 to 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 23. Meet the artists and enjoy a concert that to follow from 2:30 to 4, with the Foggy Mountain Consort, a renaissance/blue grass band.

Thanks to Em Phillips, the AHS GSA, Molly Blaauw Gillis and Elizabeth Kostojohn for painting this fun window for the Rainbow Commission as part of the Arlington Heights Halloween window-painting event on Saturday, Oct. 2.

Check it out at Kumon, along with many other windows along Mass. Av.e, on either side of Park Avenue. 

LGBTQIA+ Rainbow events: Select Board members celebrate

On National Coming-Out Day, join our two out LGBTQIA+ Select Board members, Len Diggins, at far right, and Eric Helmuth, for an open conversation with the community Monday, Oct. 11, 7-8 p.m.

Get to know a little more about them, ask them any questions you'd like, and share your thoughts on how you'd like to improve the Town of Arlington. We hope you can join us.

Register to attend in order to receive the meeting information >>

All of us have stories. What's yours? Would you like to be able to share it and don't know where to begin? Have you sat in your car to hear the end of a story on "The Moth' or "Risk" or "This American Life" on radio? Have you attended a live storytelling event or watched "Stories from the Stage" on WGBH and wondered if you could do that?

 If you answered yes, I hope you will join us and Plug In to an evening of virtual storytelling on Tuesday, Nov. 9.

The theme for the evening is gratitude. Anyone living and breathing today has much to be thankful for, and usually there is a good backstory about why.

For more than 30 years, Norah Dooley, has been connecting people through the art of storytelling and shared stories. She has taught thousands of people to tell and value their stories. Norah has been a frequent participant in the Kickstand Fugitive Productions' storytelling series, and a visiting artist in Arlington Public Schools.

The Arlington Garden Club's annual membership drive is under way.

Take a little thyme to grow the roses – and the daisies and the tomatoes: Come join us at the garden club, as members dig in with renewed vigor to preserve the town’s natural resources and to create botanical splendor in our own yards and community spaces.

This is the perfect time to join, at the start of the 2021-2022 club year. Monthly meetings feature educational presentations aimed at improving gardening skills and building awareness of vital initiatives for protecting the local environment.  In addition, small, enthusiastic groups work on civic projects to plant, preserve and maintain public green spaces, such as the Town Hall Gardens, an authentic kitchen garden at the historic Jason Russell house, the traffic circle at Ridge Street,and garden planters throughout town.  

Now you can hear the Mystic River as you walk along it for two miles in Arlington and Medford.

"Sound on Mystic" is an outdoor audio installation combining sound art, music, spoken word and ambience into an immersive experience.

Listen through Echoes, a free mobile app that uses GPS data to cue different sounds at various sites. The Mystic River Watershed Association provides it.

After downloading the app, put on a pair of headphones, take a walk within the installation’s extensive boundaries and hear a diverse set of sound works that are all united by the river itself, and its complex legacy as a place of history and nature, community and conflict, labor and recreation.

How do I listen? 

UPDATED, May 26: The Capitol Theatre and Creamery in East Arlington reopened Friday, May 28, management confirmed to YourArlington.

Screened were "Cruella," "A Quiet Place 2" and "Nomadland."

Tickets are on sale. 

Check the website for showtimes and tickets >> 

Model U.N. students with U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III in 2018. Kim Kay Holt started the group. LEAP Arlington is starting a program to improve access to camps -- an effort designed to fulfill several issues in town.

Called ACASC, the Arlington Camp Access Service Corps offers weeklong training for 18 to 20 rising sophomores and juniors about how to aid caregivers in finding and applying to summer camps for their children, including getting financial assistance. The students, under supervision, will assist parents of camp-age children in selecting camps.

LEAP stands for the Leadership Enrichment Adventure Project and is the Arlington consulting and community-organizing group run for years by resident Kim Kay Holt. The group launched an after-school program at Ottoson and the Arlington Regional Model U.N. Clubs.

Until the pandemic shut it down March 15, 2020, Fugitive Productions brought Moth and Massmouth winners, along with others from the local arts community, to share noncompetitive, five- to six-minute, true-life "Fugitive Stories" at Kickstand Cafe. 

In 2015, the effort began producing events in West Acton. The response surpassed expectations. It has been the host for 200-plus shows and sold nearly 14,000 tickets to a wide variety of music, comedy, and storytelling events in Acton, Concord, Arlington, Sudbury, Maynard, Framingham, Stow and Lincoln — and then virtually.

That is ending. The effort has been booking for the past couple of weeks  — music and comedy at Sanctuary in Maynard and a story-telling series at Old Frog Pond Farm in Harvard.

Fugitive won’t be booking smaller rooms just yet, including Kickstand Cafe.

Walk the rink

Starts Tuesday, May 11, at Ed Burns Arena, 422 Summer St. 

Continues through June 10.

Walk the Rink is back.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays (9 to 10:30 a.m.) starting May 11.

Cooped up? The Arlington Land Trust suggests some walking trails in and around Arlington.

Those at the nonprofit hope you and your family are staying safe and healthy during these difficult times. While social-distancing guidelines remain in place to protect us all from exposure to Covid-19, we also know how important it is to be outdoors and enjoy the bounties of spring in New England.

The land trust offers the following suggestions for safe walking around Arlington and in other nearby communities where conservation lands and parks are open.

Please check the websites of places you wish to visit ahead of time since many are still closed.

Registration opens to current families, new families

Registration for Kid Care Afterschool Program 2020-21 opened to new families on Wednesday, April 15. It opened for current families April 8.

"Current family" is defined as having a child registered for the Kid Care Preschool or Afterschool program during April 2020.

The enrollment fee of $50 per child. It is due at the time of registration and may be paid before that.

UPDATED, March 11: A high-quality eight-minute video documentary viewable online, just updated, called“Mill Brook Rediscovered,” is part of an adapted version of a 2019 Old Schwamb Mill exhibit scheduled to be shown in Town Hall from March 2 to April 30. A reception was set for Sunday, March 22, from 5 to 7 p.m. in the second-floor gallery, but that has been postponed in view of the coranvirus. 

“Mill Brook Rediscovered” was produced and directed by Arlington resident Glenn Litton under the auspices of the Schwamb Mill Preservation Trust. Litton is a former producer and executive producer for WGBH-TV, associated with Emmy-winning programs, including “The Advocates, “ “The Living Planet” and “Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale.” His own production company, DocuThis, based in  Arlington. 

More than 9,000 children and young adults are in state custody in Massachusetts under the Department of Children and Family Services. These young people have experienced abuse and/or neglect and are living in temporary situations.

The Foster Care Review Unit makes decisions regarding children who have been in foster care for six months or longer, assessing how well their needs are being met and what progress has been made toward establishing them in a permanent living situation. A volunteer from the Community is one member of the three -person panels that make these decisions.

The Meals on Wheels program of Minuteman Senior Services provides a hot lunch to homebound seniors.

Meals are delivered five days a week, 52 weeks a year, excluding holidays.  These meals assist the older adult who is not capable of preparing at least one hot nutritious meal a day.

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