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Harvard Square Business Association Newsletter - February 2023

Arts and Entertainment

February 11, 2023

From: Harvard Square Business Association

Please join us in welcoming our new members!

Ginko House

Industrious

Minimum Wage Art

13th Annual "Some Like it Hot" Chili Cookoff

February 11, 2023  2pm – 3:30pm

Brattle Plaza

It is with great anticipation that the Harvard Square Business Association announces the return of the 13th Annual Some Like it Hot Chili Cookoff. After a three-year hiatus, this free chili tasting party will take place Saturday, February 11th on Brattle Plaza (in front of Bluestone Lane at 27 Brattle Street) from 2pm – 3:30pm and will be hotter and spicier than ever before! More information available here.

"Lovin' the Square"

Celebrate Valentine's Day in

Harvard Square

February 10th - 14th

It's the season of love and Harvard Square has thoughtful and sweet Valentine's Day choices for all of those who hold a special place in your heart! 

Whether you're searching for a romantic dinner, indulgent desserts and cocktails, a concert, a trip to a museum, in-person or online, we have options to delight even the most discerning people on your love list! Full details available here.

Super Bowl Sunday

Celebrate the BIG GAME with food, drinks, laughter, wings, beer, commercials, an epic half-time show, rivalry and revelry! 

Click here for all the fabulous details!

Deals

Cambridge Savings Bank

Hunt’s Photo & Video

Financing Promotion Ends this Sunday, Feb 12! We’re offering our Canon customers Zero Interest if paid in full within 18 months*. For more information on financing your new Canon gear, call or stop by our Cambridge store. 

*Subject to credit approval. Minimum monthly payments are required. Applications are in-person only. Pick up gear in person only. $300 Canon purchase minimum. Offer valid on Canon products only.

Off the Beaten Path Food Tours

Fridays, Saturdays and private tours are available.

Calling all chocoholics! Join us for a delectable adventure through historic Harvard Square. You'll hear interesting stories about the Square, learn fun facts about chocolate and sample the best and most interesting chocolaty treats around. Harvard Square has a flourishing food scene with some of the best and most unique food in the city. Each tour is a fun 90 minutes and includes 4 stops with plenty of treats and less than a mile of walking. We can't wait to take you on a unique, chocolate adventure!

This tour is suitable for all ages. $40/pp. Guests must purchase tickets in advance. Use code HARVARDSQUARE and enjoy 10% off!

*NEW* Harvard Square Food Tour

Haven't been to Harvard Square lately? Do you know we have a new tiki bar?

Revisit Harvard Square on our new FOOD TOUR!

Booking Saturdays at 11:30am, this memorable experience is offered weekly. You'll eat a satisfying array of yummy eats, from Greek to Latin to the best pizza in the world. Tour also includes a Mai Tai or yummy mocktail. 

SOURCE Restaurants

"APPY HOUR" all month at SOURCE, get half off select appetizers Monday thru Friday 4pm - 6pm.

SOURCE will open at 11am on President's Day for a special brunch.

Events

Exciting Pop-up Art Gallery at The Garage in Harvard Square

February 10th – 12th and

February 17th – 19th

2pm – 6pm

The Harvard Square Business Association is pleased to announce a pop-up art gallery featuring the work of Cambridge artist Michael Ahern.

Michael Ahern (1940-2022) was known for his monochrome ink wash portraits of poets. From the 1990s until his recent passing, Ahern would attend poetry slams at the former Bookseller’s Café in North Cambridge and the Cantab Lounge in Central Square and create unique, improvisational ink brushstroke paintings.

Blue Heron

Fortuna & Fama: Josquin’s Missa Fortuna desperata & Dido’s lament

February 11th

3:00pm

A program presented for the festival Laus Polyphoniae in Antwerp in 2021, on the themes of Fortune and Fama (rumour, reputation), Josquin’s sunny mass is based on the song Fortuna desperata and a group of settings of Dido’s last words, Dulces exuvie, by Josquin, De Orto, Agricola and others.

Harvard Art Museums

February 12th, 23rd and 25th

Step Into Art with Inspiration from Kehinde Wiley

Sunday, February 12 from 12:00 – 3:00pm

Free and open to all

Join Step Into Art to create artful portraits inspired by Kehinde Wiley’s Portrait of Asia-Imani, Gabriella-Esnae, and Kaya Palmer.

Harvard Art Museums at Night

Thursday, February 23, from 5:00 – 9:00pm

Free and open to all

We’re keeping our doors open late for an evening of art, fun, food, and more!

Student Board Annual Public Lecture: Pao Houa Her in Conversation with Makeda Best

Saturday, February 25, from 7:00 – 8:30pm

Free and open to all

Join the Harvard Art Museums Student Board for its annual public lecture, featuring artist Pao Houa Her.

Cambridge Forum

The 64 Year Climate Change Cover-Up

February 14th

Why did Exxon Mobil discredit its own scientific research back in the 1970s - in the full knowledge that fossil fuels would be catastrophic for the planet and instead spend millions "trying to convince people the emergency wasn't real"? Join us for all the details and see what you can do about it. Register on Zoom 

Abroad Modern

Intro to Modern Brush Pen Calligraphy Workshop

February 15th

Join professional calligrapher Jen McCarthy of Letter B Calligraphy to start your calligraphy journey and learn the beautiful and relaxing art of brush pen calligraphy. This workshop is for beginners and no experience is necessary. All materials will be provided so at the end of the workshop, you will have all the tools you need to continue on your calligraphy journey!

Grolier Poetry Book Shop

February 15th, 24th, and March 3rd

February 15th

Gabrielle Calvocoressi and Isabel Galleymore

In person sign up

Virtual sign up

February 24th

Alex Braslavsky, Marguerite Feitlowitz and Danielle Pieratti with an introduction by Thomas Wisniewski

In person sign up

Virtual sign up

March 3rd

Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, Jill McDonough and Keith Jones with an introduction by Janaka Stucky

In person sign up

Virtual sign up

New England Jazz Collaborative

Longy School of Music

FREE Jazz Concert - Unplayed/Unheard

February 17th

8:00pm

Jazz orchestra – right in the square! 

Unplayed/Unheard at Longy features new music by the composers of the New England Jazz Collaborative, played by an all-star 17-piece professional orchestra. Tickets are required, but free. Get yours here!

Bonde Fine Wine

Celebrate Black History Month with Derek Baljeu

February 21st

American Classics

"In the Background"

February 24th

7:30pm

American Classics presents "In the Background," songs heard in All About Eve, Casablanca, and Mildred Pierce, including "Blue Moon," "I'm Just Wild About Harry," "Stormy Weather," "Manhattan," and more.

Jewett Hall, First Church, 11 Garden Street . 

Call 617-254-1125 to reserve a seat. 

$20

Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site

Longfellow Birthday Celebration (Virtual Event): “Merging Religion and Art"

February 25th

10:00am

Join Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters NHS and Mount Auburn Cemetery online February 25th at 10:00 AM to commemorate poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 216th birthday.

This virtual lecture with Professor Jeffrey Hotz will consider Longfellow's merging of religion and art in two significant late-career works, The Divine Tragedy (1871) and the posthumous Michael Angelo: A Fragment (1884). In The Divine Tragedy, Longfellow addressed the challenge of retelling Jesus's ministry in a new verse drama while remaining true to the meaning of the Evangelists' Gospels. In Michael Angelo: A Fragment, Longfellow dramatized the inner life and aspirations of the great Renaissance artist Michaelangelo in a verse biography. The lecture will draw from archival materials at Harvard's Houghton Library and the Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site. Register here

In addition to Zoom, we will be live streaming the event on our Facebook page.

Harvard University Employees Credit Union

February 27th and March 3rd

HUECU invites you to their America Saves Week webinars on Thursday, March 2nd for Debt Repayment Webinar and Friday, March 3rd for Saving at Any Age Panel.

Register at www.?huecu.?org/America-Saves

America Saves Week is back February 27th until March 3rd. It's a national effort to set a savings goal, make a savings plan, and save automatically. Join HUECU and thousands of others who are taking time to start or grow their savings by signing the savings pledge and registering for one of our webinars at www.huecu.org/America-Saves!

All registrants will receive a copy of the recording and other savings resources. Sessions are open to all.

Wusong Road

1st Birthday Bash

February 27th

6:00pm - 9:30pm

Live Music by the Tsunami of Sound

Mai Tai Throwdown featuring Tiki Bartenders from around Boston and the Country sponsored by Appleton Rum and Grand Marnier

Charity raffle for Special Artist Tiki Mugs

Meet and Greet with world renowned Tiki Bar designer, Tiki Rancher

Meet and Greet with Pygmalion Elements and Design, a Boston based art design firm and so much more!

Tickets can be purchased online.

Swedenborg Chapel

Lecture Series: New Church Visionaries

March 3rd

March 3, 7:00pm (free, online)

You are invited to journey with us as we learn about some of the greatest visionary minds of the New Church lineage. The influence of Swedenborgian ideas and spirituality has been one of enormous diversity and dynamism. This free lecture series is offered by the Helen Keller Spiritual Life Center, an initiative of the Cambridge Society of the New Jerusalem at Swedenborg Chapel, with generous financial support from the Massachusetts New Church Union.

The second lecture of the series will be delivered by Rev. Sage Cole, who will be discussing Helen Keller, the world-famous deaf blind author, disability rights advocate, political activist, and lecturer. While Helen's career in activism and advocacy on the world stage is well known, the grounding influence of Swedenborg on her life, her work, and her thought is often overlooked. Rev. Sage Cole is Pastor and Director of Swedenborg Chapel, where she also serves as the Swedenborgian Chaplain at Harvard University. She was ordained into the ministry of the Swedenborgian Church of North America in 2005 after receiving a Master of Divinity from the Pacific School of Religion and the Swedenborgian House of Studies in Berkeley, California. In 2018, Rev. Sage had a vision to form a new center to advance the spiritual legacy of Helen Keller, as a way for the church to expand its ministry to meet the spiritual needs of a new generation.

Schedule of future lectures:

April 7: Rev. Robert McCluskey, on Ralph Waldo Emerson

May 5: Dr. Devin Zuber, on Ivan Aguéli

May 19: Dr. Carl von Essen, on William James

June 2: Rev. Dr. James Lawrence, on John Chapman

July 7: Dr. Rebecca Esterson, on Immanuel Kant

Classical Music Concert

March 5, 6:00pm (free, in-person) 

Join us in welcoming three friends from the Boston Conservatory as they present an evening of classical repertoire, featuring violin, piano, and chamber works. Musicians: Xiaohe Liu (piano), Jiawei Cui (violin), and Christine Chen (violin). Music by Mozkowski, Schumann, Bach, and more.  

Candlelight Taizé Service of Prayer

March 7, 7:30–8:30pm (free, in-person)

Join us on the first Tuesday of the month at 7:30 pm for a Taizé service led by Stephanie Hollenberg (cantor) and Luke Concannon (guitar), and hosted by the Swedenborg Chapel community. These monthly services are contemplative, rooted in sung chants, prayer, and meditation – a quiet pause amid the busyness of daily life. We look forward to welcoming you.

About Taizé:

The Taizé Community is an ecumenical Christian brotherhood in Burgundy, France, composed of over 100 brothers from all over the world, from Catholic and Protestant traditions, a true “parable of community” that wants its life to be a sign of reconciliation between divided Christians and between separated peoples.

The brothers have opened their doors to the world, becoming a place of pilgrimage as they invite people to spend time with them and participate in their daily practices of prayer, sharing, and communal work.

Learn more about the Taizé Community at https://www.taize.fr.

(Johnny Appleseed)

Tutoring Plus

Tropical State of Mind

March 9th

Instead of celebrating in person at our annual Tropical Party we will again be hosting a virtual Tropical State of Mind on March 9.

Join us as we showcase a day in the life at Tutoring Plus for our students, families, and staff at the Fresh Pond Apartments program site.  

Post pandemic, students are still as much as two grade levels behind in both reading and math on the state MCAS test and Tutoring Plus plays an essential role in combating this community challenge. 

We just added 10 NEW students and are working on adding 50 more students at two new program sites. We need funding to do this work, so please support us today.  

On March 9, raise a glass from the comfort of your own home and visit our website or social media to watch our celebratory video!

Support Tutoring Plus in 2023!

Make a Donation Here!

Harvard Museum of Natural History

Swimming with Sharks: A Deep Dive into Shark Biology and Behavior

Ongoing

Nearly half a billion years ago, the first ancestors of a most remarkable group of fishes sprung forth from the evolutionary tree of life, exploding into a spectacular array of cartilaginous predators. Today, sharks are ubiquitous in and essential to our oceans, their lives intersecting with our own in important and surprising ways. In this remarkable exhibition, discover why the most massive sharks prey on some of the ocean’s smallest critters. Learn how to decipher dietary clues from jaws preserved in Harvard’s world-class collections. Explore how miniature teeth on shark skin help them move efficiently through water. Come to appreciate sharks not as deadly killers, but as fascinating creatures—more menaced than menacing—that play an outsize role in maintaining balance in marine ecosystems. Don’t miss this chance to come face-to-face with the ocean’s most famous, misunderstood megafauna! 

Click here for full calendar of events

News

Virtual Job Fair

Need a job? We can help!

The HSBA manages a job page on harvardsquare.com. Please take a look and see if you are the right fit for one of Harvard Square's favorite businesses.

Featured Listing: Tutoring Plus

Passionate about educational equity? Join our team at Tutoring Plus!

Our staff is a highly dedicated group of individuals who are committed to the mission of Tutoring Plus. We work collaboratively within a dynamic and fast-paced environment. 

We are hiring two full-time Program Associates to lead programs! You can view the job list and apply HERE

Tutoring Plus is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to hiring staff who reflect the diversity of the communities we serve. People of color, bilingual candidates, and differently-abled people are encouraged to apply. Tutoring Plus does not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, military veteran status or any other characteristic protected by local, state or federal law. Tutoring Plus is dedicated to helping to close the opportunity gap within our neighborhood.

The Banker Real Estate Company

Space Available

8 Eliot St. 3rd floor: 1,200 sq. feet, asking $3,000 per month

12 Eliot St. 2nd floor: 800+ sq. feet, asking $2,000 per month

14A Eliot St. 1st floor: 1,200 sq. feet, asking $3,000 per month.

The Banker Real Estate Company, (617)-491-3212

Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre

Summer Elementary Program 2023 - Now Enrolling

July 3 - August 4

Ages 3-10 

During this five-week program, young dancers ages 3-10 discover the joy of music and movement in classes that engage, inspire and develop real skills that will last a lifetime.

See Eyewear

The Bayria Collection at SEE

SEE Eyewear has teamed up with Italian framemaker Bayria to create an avant-garde, cutting edge collection. Constructed with the highest quality Italian cellulose acetate, this partnership illustrates all things that matter to SEE— design, fashion, elegance, quality, ethical work, and respect for the planet.

Taiyaki NYC X The Dough Club

Distressed Children & Infants International

Volunteer/Internship Positions:

Interested in human development and protecting child rights & preventing child labor? Consider joining Distressed Children & Infants International (DCI) to help us manage our operational duties.

We strive to develop a plan for each volunteer/intern that both furthers our mission and helps them pursue their career goals. Work with us out of our Harvard Square office or remotely.

If interested, please visit https://distressedchildren.org/ and contact us by phone (857-292-9186) or email [email protected]

Daniel Foster Bass Viol

Daniel Foster 6 string bass viol for sale - label: 1985 no. 79. 

It's in good shape - minimal finish wear in places and needs a new string. Soft case and two bows included. $6,400 or best reasonable offer. Located in Lexington/Cambridge, MA.

More pictures available upon request, email Kate Lee.

HSBA Member Spotlight

Minimum Wage Art

Originally from Medford, Bob Smith was schooled in Somerville and lived in New Mexico throughout most of the 1980’s. He now resides along the Alewife Brook in Arlington.

Smith, 71, works locally as a self-employed handyman. He also makes original art in mixed mediums from post cards and t-shirts to large sculptures made out of trash.

"I call most of my art 'Minimum Wage Art'. I chose that name on a whim back in 1978. Having never studied art or the business of being successful as an artist and finding much of the art world pretentious, the idea of calling my works in the arts, 'Minimum Wage Art' was a way to express ironic and humorous disapproval".