Jamaica Plain Resident Elected to Massachusetts Society of CPAs Board of Directors

The Massachusetts Society of Certified Public Accountants (MassCPAs) recently announced that Jamaica Plain resident Adnani Johari was elected to serve a third year on its Board of Directors for its 2023-2024 fiscal year. Johari is a director and vice president at Brighthouse Investment Advisers, a member of the Brighthouse Investment Advisors Valuation Committee and an assistant treasurer of Brighthouse Funds. MassCPAs Board of Directors is a group of 19 elected members that sets policies, manages programs and oversees activities for the 11,500-member organization. “MassCPAs Board of Directors is an exceptional and diverse group of individuals that will have a profound impact on defining the Society's priorities and propelling the accounting profession forward in Massachusetts," said Amy Pitter, MassCPAs president and CEO via press release. “I am thrilled to have Adnani on the board and know that her valuable contributions and leadership will benefit the Society, our community and the profession in the coming year.”

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JP’s Maya Johnson Honored in 2023 Letters About Literature for Letter to ‘The Hate U Give’ Author

A Jamaica Plain teenager was honored by the Massachusetts Center for the Book 2023 Top Honor student writers for its Letters About Literature program. This Commonwealth-wide reading and writing initiative invites students from Grades 4 to 12 to write letters to authors about the books that have had special meaning to them. Jamaica Plain resident Maya Johnson, junior at Melrose High School, earned Honors in Level 3 for her letter to Angie Thomas about The Hate U Give. Fifteen honorees, representing the top 1.5% of this year’s program submissions, were celebrated at a virtual awards celebration on May 17. On behalf of the Board of Directors, Massachusetts author Alexandra Marshall commended the students on their work and also told them, as a writer, how important it is for authors to hear from readers, because authors write “with the wish to be read.”

"As a student of color in a predominately white school, the opportunity to read and access literature that reflects Maya's experience is powerful," said state Rep. Samantha Montaño (15th-D Suffolk) during the awards.

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JP Resident Leads Nonprofit Bringing Digital Music Program to Margarita Muñiz Academy

Five days a week this school year Margarita Muñiz Academy students learned how to create music thanks to nonprofit Boston Music Project led by a Jamaica Plain resident. “They’re taking music they like and learning how to produce in the style of Bad Bunny or a bachata,” said Boston Music Project (BMP) Executive Director Chris Schroeder. “The final stage is working in the studio and seeing what that experience is like.”

Through the digital marketing program, all juniors and seniors learn to use Soundtrap, and create music albums similar to their musical preferences. Taking student learning further, BMP partnered with a recording company to understand different roles that exist in the industry. “You don’t need to be a performer on stage.

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Two Jamaica Plain Authors Named 2023 Massachusetts Book Awards Must Reads

Two Jamaica Plain authors books made the Massachusetts Center for the Book (MCB) Must Read titles in the 23rd Annual Massachusetts Book Awards program.  

The titles represent achievements in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and young people’s literature by Massachusetts writers and illustrators during 2022.  The Must Read nonfiction picks include By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow’s Legal Executioners (W.W. Norton) by Jamaica Plain's Margaret A. Burnham. Burnham's books is a “paradigm-shifting investigation” of little-known violence in the South in the 20th century and the legal establishment that sustained it. The Must Read poetry picks includes American Treasure by Jamaica Plain's Jill McDonough.

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Jamaica Plain’s Chuck Collins on New Book ‘Altar to an Erupting Sun’

Jamaica Plain's Chuck Collins new book Altar to an Erupting Sun is partially set in JP and includes several local things including the Wake Up The Earth Festival, Paul Gore Street, Doyle's, and more. Collins answered questions about his newest book, which was released on May 9. What is your new book Altar to an Erupting Sun about? 
Collins: Altar is the story of a charismatic woman named Rae Kelliher who is a veteran human rights and environmental activist who later in her life becomes a pioneer in the death with dignity movement. Her partner Reggie, who grew up in Dorchester, calls her a “weaver of social change” and an “instant party in a box.” 
The future fiction part of the story chronicles how Rae faces climate disruption. Instead of a gloomy Mad Max apocalypse vision, Altar envisions how humanity begins to turn the corner toward survivability in what environmentalists call “the critical decade” ahead.  The story also has elements of “coming of age” as it looks back several decades at the people and movements that shape Rae’s identity and actions. 
Why did you want to write this book? 
Collins: I had this story and character knocking on my inner door.

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Jamaica Plain’s Breuninger Joins Jimmy Fund Walk in Memory of Roommate & Best Friend

Jamaica Plain resident Drew Breuninger decided to participate in the Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund Walk pin memory of his dear friend and roommate, Marcos Flegmann, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2017. "We were roommates in August 2017, and I happened to be on vacation,” said Breuninger. "I remember Marcos texted me to say that he was moving out, but he wouldn't tell me why. He said that we could talk about it when I got back...I had no idea what I could have done to make him move out so unexpectedly.”
Finally, he was able to get Marcos to give him a call. "I'll never forget when he told me.

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Jamaica Plain Resident Celebrates 100th Birthday

Jamaica Plain resident Anahid Khanbegian recently celebrated her 100th birthday. Khanbegian lives at the Armenian Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Jamaica Plain, and celebrated her birthday on March 2 while surrounded by family members, staff, residents, and friends. The party included flowers, homemade chocolate pudding, cakes, ice cream and gifts. But most of all, she beamed with happiness being with her family -- her daughter-in-law Sandra, her grandson Peter and his wife Kwan, her niece Linda, and her husband Dennis Tarzian, were all on hand for the festivities. Born on March 2, 1923, in Portland, Maine, Anahid (Parnagian) Khanbegian was always an active, happy child.

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Jamaica Plain’s Gina McCarthy Receiving Emerald Necklace Conservancy Liff Spirit Award

The Emerald Necklace Conservancy will present the Liff Spirit Award at Party in the Park to Jamaica Plain's Gina McCarthy, the first ever White House National Climate Advisor and former U.S. EPA Administrator. Party in the Park, the Conservancy’s premier annual fundraising event for the EmeraldNecklace, will take place in Franklin Park on Wednesday, May 17, 2023. A career public servant in both Democratic and Republican administrations, McCarthy has been a leading advocate for common sense strategies to protect public health and the environment for more than 30 years. McCarthy’s leadership led to the most aggressive action on climate change in U.S. history, creating new jobs and unprecedented clean energy innovation and investments across the country. Her commitment to bold action across the Biden administration, supported by the climate and clean energy provisions in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, restored U.S. climate leadership on a global stage and put a new U.S. national target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50–52 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 within reach.

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Local JP Quilter Being Featured in Upcoming Show

Jamaica Plain's Susan Krantz has been working with textiles since she was a teenager. At 9 years of age, her grandmother taught her to knit to distract her from being fidgety. Krantz then took sewing lessons while in high school from a woman who studied in Paris. Quilting was a spontaneous undertaking after purchasing a copy of Georgia Bonesteel’s first book Lap Quilting. Forty years later she is an avid quilter.

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Check Out ‘Artists Redux’ Painting Exhibit at Arnold Arboretum

You still have time to see the an art show at the Arnold Arboretum featuring two Jamaica Plain painters. "Artists Redux" is an exhibit at the Arnold Arboretum’s Hunnewell Building Gallery in the Visitors Center through March 13 featuring work by JP painters Ginny Zanger and Lizi Brown. The Hunnewell Building is open every day 10 am to 4 pm

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