By Lester Paquin

FRIDAY

If you really want to experience exciting new artistic talent, there's no better place than the first-floor/lobby art gallery in the Ghosh Center for Science and Technology at Worcester State College (486 Chandler St.) through May 7. That's where WSC's Department of Visual and Performing Arts hosts the annual Student Art Exhibition, featuring a variety of mediums by students. And it's free. Stop by on your way to somewhere else — it's very convenient and well worth your time. It's especially inspiring to aspiring high school artists, so if you have a talented teenager, swing them by. The gallery's open from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m.

It's not pleasant, but it's something you need to know about: It's called "mountaintop removal mining." In West Virginia and eastern Kentucky, coal companies blast as much as 600 feet off the top of mountains, then dump the rocks and debris into mountain streams. More than 300,000 acres of the most beautiful and productive hardwood forests in America have already been turned into barren grasslands. Mountaintop removal mining increases flooding, contaminates drinking water supplies, cracks foundations, showers nearby towns with dust and noise, endangers the lives and health of workers and makes a select few people very rich. So, what do we do about it? First, get informed. And you can do that today at the Worcester Public Library (3 Salem Square) at 3:30 p.m. by partaking in a free presentation of a thought-provoking slide show with traditional Appalachian music and culture by Lexington, Kentucky environmental activist Dave Cooper, titled The Hidden Destruction of the Appalachian Mountains. A discussion will follow the program. It may not be as chic as global warming, but this irresponsible destruction of our natural resources merits your attention. For more information, visit www.mountainroadshow.com.

SATURDAY

Continuing this week's theatrical Mint theme, we're heading back to Worcester State College (Sullivan Auditorium, 486 Chandler St.) for All in the Timing, six one-act comedies that combine wit, intellect, satire and just plain fun. Beats all that junk on TV — enough of the bachelors, big brothers, nannies, dancers, models and money-givers, already. This six-piece play written by David Ives and directed by Adam Zahler centers on the hope that arises from characters who struggle through everyday occurrences of chaos and disorder — must have been inspired by a visit to our Mint offices. Curtain's at 8 p.m., admission is $12 (WSC students get in for six bucks).

They're often referred to as Worcester's "hardest-working social service organization, and who are we to argue? They're AIDS Project Worcester, and they're having a benefit show tonight at the Green Rooster Coffeehouse (6 Institute Road) to raise money for all their good works. Featured performers are The Latin Endorphins and Olde ‘Nuf to Know Better "kick up their beats so you can move your feets." This is a good reason to step out, have a little fun and support a good cause, all at the same time. For more information, call 508-798-3010.

SUNDAY

"STELLLLLLLLA!" Who among us hasn't evoked and mimicked the spirit of the once-handsome and hard-bodied Marlon Brando as he stood in the rain in his T-shirt, bellowing for his wife? Well, OK, maybe it's a guy thing. Anyway, the folks at Foothills Theatre (100 Front St.) are staging the Tennessee Williams (pictured) classic A Streetcar Named Desire through May 4. It features Blanche DuBois, her sister Stella and the aforementioned Stanley Kowalski, all working through their lives of illusion, denial, romance and disappointment in sultry New Orleans. And yes, it's a period piece — nowadays, Stanley would get his ass kicked, along with a restraining order. For show times and admission prices, visit www.foothillstheatre.com or call 508-754-4018.

It's rather incredible when you stop and think about it. The Civil War was the bloodiest conflict in our nation's history, yet so many of its participants — both military and civilian — found the time to write one another. Those fragile letters, in turn, were delivered to their intended readers (on horseback, in all kinds of weather), who often kept and re-read them for a lifetime. Then, their descendents kept them and passed them down through their families — making lines penned in ink on paper during times of hardship and conflict one of the most enduring relics of life in a time of war. By all accounts, these delicate mementoes should not have survived, but they do — in remarkable numbers. That's certainly the case with the Civil War letters of Captain Francis D. Lincoln and Rebecca Cox Lincoln of Brimfield. More than 60 of their exchanged letters have recently been discovered, written while Captain Lincoln served with the 46th Massachusetts Regiment in 1862-63. They were recently published under the title Trying to Do My Duty, and today, local authors Larry and Kitty Lowenthal II read from the correspondence in the Banx Room at the Worcester Public Library at 2:30 p.m. The program is free and open to the public. If nothing else, this proves that you should look carefully at those old bundles of letters before you lob them into the recycling bin. For more information, call 508-799-1670. o