Built in 1908, today’s Northern Avenue Bridge was in service for over a century, before it was closed in 2014. The City of Boston will be reconstructing this iconic span, reimagining it to improve mobility, honor history, strengthen resiliency and create a new destination along Boston’s shore. The City has convened a Mayoral Advisory Task Force to assist in designing and programming the new bridge. The City invites you to lend your voice and help build a bridge that meets the needs of Boston’s next century.

The meeting will begin with an open house where participants can:

• view project materials
• learn more about the current bridge’s structural analysis, mobility evaluation, placemaking and design process, and
• speak with members of the Project Team.

The presentation will begin at 6:30 p.m., followed by time for questions and answers.

• Community Meeting - March 2019
• 25% design hearing: Date TBD
• Pre-construction public meeting: Date TBD

Sara Porkalob is an award-winning arts activist based in Seattle. She’s featured in Seattle Magazine’s Most Influential People of 2018, City Art’s 2017 Futures List, and served as Intiman Theatre's 2017 Co-Curator. She is a co-founder of DeConstruct, an online journal of intersectional performance critique. Her first full length play, "Dragon Lady," is the recipient of three 2018 Gregory Awards for:

• Outstanding Sound/Music Design
• Outstanding Actress in a Musical, and
• Outstanding Musical Production.

The play has also garnered a Seattle Times Footlight Award and a Broadway World Award for “Best New Play."

In March 2019, American Repertory Theatre will produce "Dragon Lady" and "Dragon Mama," the first two plays in her family trilogy, "The Dragon Cycle." Next year, she is collaborating with the City of Seattle and their new Creative Strategies Initiative (CSI), a new City effort that uses arts- and culture-based approaches to build racial equity in non-arts policy areas like the environment, housing, workforce, and community development. Nordo’s Culinarium will produce her new play, "7th and Jackson," a historical fiction with music inspired by Seattle’s International District.

The group will read from works in progress set outside of Boston, and will participate in an interactive panel discussion moderated by AGNI’s Senior Editor, Bill Pierce.

Come learn about the relationship between the writer's work and the experience of being an artist in the City of Boston. How do these things intersect? How do they influence each other? What are the challenges and advantages of writing about a place where you no longer live? What can these writers bring to the city? How can writers and readers in Boston think of literature as a global experience?

The Back Porch Collective is a group comprised of mostly international writers from diverse backgrounds:

• Dariel Suarez (Cuba)
• Stacy Mattingly (Atlanta)
• Shubha Sunder (India)
• Jonathan Escoffery (Miami/Jamaica)
• Ani Gjika (Albania)
• and Colwill Brown (United Kingdom)

Through the Artist Fellowship, the City of Boston offered five awards of $10,000 each in 2017 to Boston-based artists across disciplines. More than 300 applications were reviewed by a panel of jurors made up of local arts leaders and Boston Cultural Council members. Fellows were asked to work with the City on one public event showcasing their work. The 2017 fellows included Dariel Suarez, Mary-Jane Dohery, Marilyn Arsem, Jason Palmer, and Michelle Fornabai.

After Halloween passes, what do you plan to do with your holiday pumpkins? Instead of throwing them away, why don't you compost your pumpkins with Greenovate Boston! 

On Saturday, November 3, Greenovate Boston and City Soil will be hosting Pumpkin Smash!, a pumpkin composting event at the Mattapan Ecovation Center. Smash your pumpkins and then learn the proper way to compost them!

Did you know pumpkins past their prime can be composted with your leaf and yard waste? Join us at our family-friendly event where you can safely smash and compost your pumpkin after Halloween. Learn more about how you can compost at home, see the composting process in action, and eat cider donuts at the Mattapan Ecovation Center, 456 American Legion Highway, Mattapan, MA 02126!

Come by anytime between 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. Dilapidated sadface pumpkins welcomed and highly encouraged. 

RSVP for the Pumpkin Smash

It is forecasted to lightly rain on Saturday. The event will still take place if it rains. This event is a collaboration between the City's Departments of Public Works and Environment, the Mattapan Ecovation Center and City Soil, and the Boston Nature Center.