Black Cantabrigians are elevated over the important but already familiar national figures that usually get highlighted during Black History Month.

Noble Dust, a Boston-based band, has received the inaugural Gecko Fund grant from the Cambridge music nonprofit Passim, joining the news of the $41,350 granted this year to 23 artists through its Iguana Music Fund.

The closing of ImprovBoston ends more than 40 years of improvisational comedy in Cambridge that enlivened nightlife with clubs in Inman and then Central squares before being shuttered by the Covid pandemic.

The homeless youth shelter Y2Y went without top leadership for about a year. A leader hired in August has spent her first few months reconnecting with other organizations.

Rainfall-driven eruptions of raw sewage into the Charles River, the Mystic River and especially the Alewife Brook take place on a regular basis. There are things we could do beyond waiting for the installation of municipal infrastructure.

The organization wants to pack its renovated 4,500-square-foot black box theater and new 1,100-square-foot street-front studio with a community celebration.

Asked what the city could do to be supportive, instead of talking about housing, health care or job opportunities, an unhoused woman simply asked for a warm blanket to keep her warm during the coldest months.

Cambridge Community Foundation has announced a five-year timeline for taking on the city’s biggest, most persistent problems, with the introduction of initiatives front loaded over the next 24 months.

In a look ahead at a week of Cambridge and Somerville events, plant a Miyawaki Forest in Somerville, take in a “Dark Exhalation” of sci-fi opera or Sleeping Weazel’s Experimental Cabaret, celebrate Yuck Fest, eat a foraged banquet, hear the “Confessions of a Candy Snatcher” and gasp at Cirque of the Dead.

A 15th anniversary isn’t Gallery 263’s only milestone this year. The nonprofit art space is a month into its “263 to $40k” campaign – the biggest fundraiser in its history, and a potential turning point for the organization.