Date: September 11 Time: 4:00-5:30pm Venue: Eliot School of Fine & Applied Arts, 24 Eliot Street, Jamaica Plain Boldly re-imagine John Williams’ classic movie themes with funky grooves, jazzy harmony, and epic solos. Picture Harry Potter wallowing in butterbeer-induced blues in New Orleans and Darth Vader busting out head-spins at a dance party. This musically accomplished quintet draws upon their deep reservoir of musical skills to transform cinematic masterpieces through the prism of groovy, soulful funky-jazz…

For two days in November 1872, a massive fire swept through Boston, leaving the downtown in ruins and the population traumatized. Coming barely a year after the infamous Chicago fire, Boston’s inferno turned out to be one of the most expensive fires per acre in U.S. history. Yet today few are aware of how close Boston came to destruction. Boston author Stephanie Schorow masterfully recounts the fire’s history from the foolish decisions that precipitated it…

Jamaica Plain Historical Society tour of Green Street Laid out in 1836, the street played a key role in Jamaica Plain’s development, functioning as a residential, commercial, and transportation conduit in the lives of the district’s residents. Although Green Street was subdivided as early as 1851 for stores, factories and houses, it was not extensively developed until the late 1870s with construction continuing until the early 1900s. The Bowditch School was completed in 1892, and…

Franklin Park Jazz and R&B Festival - Saturday, September 17th from 12-6pm. Join us for a full day of music at the Elma Lewis Playhouse in the Park site in Franklin Park, 25 Pierpont Road, Roxbury 02121. Bring a lawn chair and all your friends. Headliner: Margo Thunder. Also performing: Midnight Crew All Star Review, Wali Ali, Mike Rollins, and Fred Woodard. More info - www.franklinparkcoalition.org

Date: September 18 Time: 4:00-5:30pm Venue: Eliot School of Fine & Applied Arts, 24 Eliot Street, Jamaica Plain If you have been dying to feel those musical goosebumps or want to take a journey down memory lane, you don’t want to miss this performance. Shavonne’s songs will bring you back to when you first fell in love with music and the love story that it is today. This is part of the Eliot Schoolyard Concert Series, 15…

Friday, September 23 - Sunday, September 25, 10am-noon and 1pm-4pm daily Location: Hunnewell Visitor Center at 125 Arborway https://arboretum.harvard.edu/events/caterpillar-lab/ The Caterpillar Lab fosters greater appreciation and care for the complexity and beauty of our local natural history through live caterpillar educational programs, research initiatives, and photography and film projects. Visit their residency at the Arboretum to experience an immersive, interactive exhibit featuring hundreds of native caterpillars at every stage in their life cycles! The Lab offers…

Jamaica Plain Historical Society Tour of Woodbourne This neighborhood developed from 19th-century summer estates into a model suburban enclave. It contains examples representative of New England architecture with designs by local architects and builders. It also contains an unusual garden city model housing development by the Boston Dwelling House Company which was founded in 1912. Leaves from Bethel AME church steps, corner of Walk Hill and Wachusett Sts. Click here to see photographs for the…

Jamaica Plain Historical Society Tour of Sumner Hill Developed as a suburb by General William Hyslop Sumner in the mid-nineteenth century, this National Historic District includes one of the finest collections of Victorian houses in the area. The tour includes the ancestral home of the Dole Pineapple Company founder as well as the homes of progressives who were active as abolitionists and women suffragists. Leaves from Loring-Greenough House, 12 South St.  Click here to see…

Date: September 25 Time: 4:00-5:30pm Venue: Eliot School of Fine & Applied Arts, 24 Eliot Street, Jamaica Plain Legendary Boston jazz musician and educator Stan Strickland (sax, flute, vocals), joins jazz/soul vocalist Lori Gomes and multi-instrumentalist Akili Jamal Haynes for a powerful whole-body experience, where breath and movement travel through instruments and air. This is part of the Eliot Schoolyard Concert Series, 15 live events, Sundays at 4pm, June through September at the Eliot Schoolyard. This concert coincides with Jamaica Plain Open Studios; Eliot…

Jamaica Plain Historical Society Tour of Jamaica Pond Once a district that only included the houses of Boston’s elite, the Pond later was put to industrial use as tons of ice were harvested there each winter. Learn about the movers and shakers such as Francis Parkman and James Michael Curley who made their homes on the Pond’s shores. Discover how the Pond was transformed from private estates and warehouses into the parkland we know today.…