Past Events
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Monday, February 12, 2018 - 6:00 PM | Performance | Open to the public | Members' Room | $25 per person | advance registration requireda new play by Jenny Lyn Bader, directed by Julie Kramer. Told from the point of view of the world’s most famous painting, this solo true-crime whodunit begins with the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre. Along the way, the woman in the portrait solves mysteries that have baffled fans and stumped scholars for centuries: Why Leonardo never delivered the painting to the man who commissioned it. Who she is. And why she’s smiling. Equally Divine is a time-hopping, gender-bending drama about art, inspiration, and becoming who we are.
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Wednesday, February 7, 2018 - 6:30 PM | The Writing Life | Open to the public | Members' Room | Free of charge | advance registration requiredJust admit it. You love love. Let’s talk about it. This panel covers it all, from the modern to the classic, starting with two debut novels: Leslie Cohen’s This Love Story Will Self-Destruct and Jill Santopolo’s The Light We Lost. The authors converse with Andrew Blauner of Blauner Books Literary Agency.Event Recording
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Tuesday, January 30, 2018 - 5:30 PM | Children | Open to the public | for grades 3-8 | Members' Room | $10 per person | advance registration requiredTravel back in time on a medieval quest as author Adam Gidwitz reads from his newest swashbuckling story, The Inquisitor’s Tale, and reveals how history inspired him to write this captivating adventure.
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Saturday, January 27, 2018 - 3:00 PM | Children | For members and their guests | Whitridge Room | for ages 2 and older | $10 per child | advance registration requiredDiscover stories through songs with Bobaloo, a musician, storyteller, and Pied Piper of song.
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Thursday, January 25, 2018 - 12:30 PM | Reading Group | For members only | Whitridge Room | $60 for all four sessions, or $15 per session | advance registration requiredSamuel Johnson (1709-1784) is a writer whose name is familiar to most educated speakers of English, and most know his wingman James Boswell. The number of people who have read Johnson and/or Boswell is much smaller. This seminar will make a dent in that phenomenon by reading and discussing some of Johnson’s best-known and lesser-known works, plus Boswell’s biography of him, esteemed by many the best biography ever written.
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Wednesday, January 24, 2018 - 5:30 PM | Children | For members and their guests grades 3-8 | Whitridge Room | $15 per person | advance registration requiredCreate your own graphic novel with the author-illustrator of the Olympians series.
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Monday, January 22, 2018 - 6:00 PM | Performance | Open to the public | Members' Room | $15 per person | advance registration requiredFrom Euripides’ classic Greek tragedy and Ellen McLaughlin’s lyrical adaptation, composer Sarah Taylor Ellis creates a moving new chamber musical, directed by Rachel Dickstein. This event lasts approximately 90 minutes including a full-cast sing-through and discussion with the creators.
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Thursday, January 18, 2018 - 5:30 PM | Children | Open to the public | for kindergarten through 5th grade | Members' Room | $10 per person | advance registration requiredMake art with award-winning author and illustrator Melissa Sweet. In this stunning first-ever fully illustrated biography of the legendary author E. B. White, the Sibert medalist and Caldecott Honor winner uses White’s letters, photos, and manuscripts—as well as her original collaged art—to depict the true and fascinating story of one of the most beloved authors of all time.
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Thursday, January 11, 2018 - 6:00 PM | The Writing Life | For members only | Whitridge Room | $60 for the series | advance registration requiredWhy wait for Tuscany? Get the benefits of a writing retreat within the confines of the Library with playwright C.S. Hanson. In six sessions, establish writing habits that will support you throughout the year. Focus on a new project, resurrect an old one, or unearth a story you have always wanted to tell. All genres welcome.
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Wednesday, January 10, 2018 - 6:30 PM | Lecture | Open to the public | Members' Room | $15 per person | advance registration requiredFrom the author of the acclaimed history The Island at the Center of the World, an intimate new epic of the American Revolution that reinforces its meaning for today.
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Tuesday, January 9, 2018 - 10:00 AM | The Writing Life | For members only | Whitridge Room | Free of charge; advance registration requiredMargo Taft Stever and Jennifer Franklin, poets and co-editors of Slapering Hol Press, talk about how to establish and maintain a small press. They will also discuss the general procedures for publishing poems in literary magazines and how to put together a book of poetry.
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Tuesday, December 12, 2017 - 10:00 AM | The Writing Life | For Members Only | Whitridge Room | Free of charge; advance registration requiredThe right words in the right order in the right place can build a world, but laying the bricks right is never easy. A seasoned editor discusses how to tell when the words are right and when they're wrong, how to put them in order, and how to create the spaces for new dimensions by assembling words into sentences, paragraphs, and stories.
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Thursday, December 7, 2017 - 6:30 PM | Lecture | Open to the Public | Members' Room | $15 per person | Advance registration requiredFind joy and insight with two authors in enthusiastic conversation about children’s literature, human nature, and their new books: Bruce Handy’s Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children’s Literature as an Adult and Gretchen Rubin’s The Four Tendencies: The Indispensable Personality Profiles That Reveal How to Make Your Life Better (and Other People’s Lives Better, Too).
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Saturday, November 18, 2017 - 3:00 PM | Children | For Members and Guests | For ages 2 and older | Whitridge Room | $10 per child, payable at the door | Advance registration required
Storyteller Getchie Argetsinger will share interactive stories and games during an enchanting afternoon at the Library.
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Thursday, November 16, 2017 - 6:30 PM | Lecture | Open to the Public | Members' Room | $15 per person | Advance registration requiredYoga is hugely popular around the world today, yet until now little has been known of its roots. This book collects, for the first time, core teachings of yoga in their original form, translated and edited by two of the world’s foremost scholars of the subject. Sir James Mallinson is a lecturer in Sanskrit and Classical and Indian Studies at SOAS, University of London; Mark Singleton is a long-term research fellow at the American Institute of Indian Studies. They are joined in conversation by Daniel Simpson.
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Tuesday, November 14, 2017 - 5:30 PM | Children | For Members and Guests | For grades 3-8 | Whitridge Room | $15 per person, payable at the door | Advance registration requiredIn this ongoing series young writers are invited to join notable authors in exploring different genres. Novelist Jane Kelley will share how empathy helps authors create realistic characters, whether they’re a frightened kid, a soldier, an astronaut, or even an animal. Participants will learn how “walking in someone else’s shoes” can improve their writing and strengthen their connection to others.
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Tuesday, November 14, 2017 - 10:00 AM | The Writing Life | For Members Only | Whitridge Room | Free of charge; advance registration requiredWe’ve all been told to write what you know. Children’s Lit authors Ann E. Burg (Unbound: A Novel in Verse) and Christine Kendall (Riding Chance) will discuss how inspiration, perspiration, and no small amount of magic have led them to places and experiences they never would have imagined. They’ll share their thoughts on historical fiction, novels in verse, and, most importantly, writing across and deeper than our differences.
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Sunday, November 12, 2017 - 3:00 PM | Performance | Open to the Public | Members' Room | $25 per person | Advance registration required
Experience Willa Cather’s world in a whole new way through the music of Library member and acclaimed jazz composer Nancy Harrow, accompanied by Alphonso Horne, trumpet; Dave Linard, keyboard; and John Snow, bass.
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Thursday, November 9, 2017 - 6:30 PM | Children | Open to the Public | For grades 6 and older | Members' Room | $10 per person, payable at the door | Advance registration requiredSpeed of Life is the heartbreaking, heartwarming story of a girl who thinks her life is over, when really it’s just beginning. The New York Times Book Review calls it “perceptive, funny, and moving.”
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Monday, November 6, 2017 - 6:30 PM | Lecture | Open to the Public | Members' Room | $15 per person | Advance registration requiredAfter meeting for the first time on the front lines of World War I, two aspiring writers forge an intense twenty-year friendship and write some of America’s greatest novels. Rich in evocative detail from Paris cafés to the Austrian Alps, from the streets of Pamplona to the waters of Key West, The Ambulance Drivers is a biography of a turbulent literary friendship and an illustration of how war both inspires and destroys, unites and divides.
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Thursday, November 2, 2017 - 6:00 PM | Special Event | Open to the Public | Members' Room | $20 per person | Advance registration requiredProfessional journalist and amateur drinker Bianca Bosker didn’t know much about wine—until she discovered an alternate universe where taste reigns surpreme, a world of elite sommeliers who dedicate their lives to the pursuit of flavor. Astounded by their fervor and seemingly superhuman sensory powers, she set out to discover what drove their obsession, and whether she, too, could become a “cork dork.” In this event, Ms. Bosker will introduce her book Cork Dork and three of the specific wines discussed, which will then be served following the presentation.
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Monday, October 30, 2017 - 6:30 PM | Special Event | Open to the Public | Members' Room | $15 per person | Advance registration requiredTo lovers of theater, David Ives’ name says intelligence, humor, and excitement, from All in the Timing to Venus in Fur. In this one-time-only event, Mr. Ives will chat with Tony Award-winner John Rando, a frequent director of his plays, about his own work, the theater world, and the craft of playwriting.
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Sunday, October 29, 2017 - 3:00 PM | Performance | Open to the Public | Members' Room | $25 per person | Advance registration requiredAMP is inspired by the writings of Mary Shelley, Luigi Galvani’s discovery of “animal electricity,” the birth of modern feminism, the history of electro-shock therapy, and the monsters society creates. Written and performed by Jody Christopherson with sound and projection design by Martha Goode, AMP is a 60-minute multi-media solo horror piece for the theater.
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Thursday, October 26, 2017 - 6:00 PM | The Writing Life | Open to the Public | Members' Room | $15 per person | Advance registration required
Library members read from their own short stories, novels, poetry, criticism, memoir, and plays. Refreshments and wine will be served.
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Tuesday, October 24, 2017 - 11:00 AM | Reading Group | For Members Only | Whitridge Room | $25 for both sessions (recommended); $15 per sessionSamuel Butler’s The Way of All Flesh is a full-bodied social novel as well as an excoriating attack on the Victorian consensus. Butler chronicles the collapse of the nineteenth century’s certainties and the arising of new, modern questions with psychological dpth and satiric verve. Join in this two-part discussion of a book long regarded as a modern classic.
