This group is for those new to the writing process and will combine support and time for practice, reading samples and receiving feedback. Led by Tom Yee, the group meets on the third Saturday of the month, 10:30 – Noon in Meeting Room A. Pre-registration required: Call 630-0742. Meeting Dates: July 20 and August 17.

Vocalist/guitarist Deborah Rocha, accompanied by guitarist Steve Rapson, will bring the sounds of Brazil to the Newton Free Library for a summer concert on Thursday, August 1, 7:30PM. Their program will feature Brazilian and American jazz standards, sung in Portuguese and English, with music by such composers as Jobim, Johnny Alf, Fats Waller and some original pieces by Rocha.

Rocha grew up in Kansas where she fell in love with bossa nova, listening to the radio. Years later, she studied classical music at Kansas University, moved to Boston and eventually to Brazil where she learned the language and music of her adopted country. Now back in Boston, she performs and translates Brazilian songs into English.

Rapson performs regularly as a solo jazz performer and in collaboration with other musicians in New England and has recorded five solo CDs. For many years he led the band, The Music Company.

Photo by Susan Wilson

Phinney has performed in many solo recitals and chamber music concerts across the United States and Europe. She has collaborated in chamber music concerts, recording projects and radio and television programs with members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO), New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Recently she was featured with members of the BSO on a WGBH live radio broadcast and "Urban Update" television broadcast, "No Fences: Music in Black and White." Phinney served as the first Artist-in-Residence and Assistant Director of the Arts Program at the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies in Maryland and was the inaugural Artist in the Tillett Gardens "Arts Alive" concert series in St. Thomas and the Whim House Historical Museum series in St. Croix. She serves on the piano faculty of the Musicorda String Festival at Mt. Holyoke College.

The Calyx Piano Trio composed of pianist Nina Ferrigno, violinist Sarah Thornblade and cellist Jennifer Lucht will perform trios by Debussy, Beethoven and others at the Newton Free Library on Wednesday, August 14, 7:30PM.

Ferrigno is an active chamber musician who plays throughout the U.S. and Canada. She performs regularly with members of the Boston Symphony, Metropolitan Opera and Orlando Philharmonic orchestras and is a member of the AUROS Group for New Music. She participates in chamber music series in Boston, New York Florida and at Tanglewood and was artist-in-residence at the Banff Centre for the 2000-2001 season. Previously she toured new England with the Northeast Jazz Repertory Orchestra performing an historically accurate orchestration of Gershwin’s "Rhapsody in Blue." Recently she recorded with the Boston Symphony and has appeared with the Boston Pops on "Evening at Pops."

Thornblade has performed throughout the U.S., Japan, Italy and Israel and at festivals such as Tanglewood, Spoleto Festival, Norfolk Festival, Portland Chamber Music Festival, Colorado Music Festival and Oregon Bach Festival. She was a founding member of the Arianna String Quartet which won many competitions. Formerly a member of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, she is currently a member of the AUROS Group and the Rhode Island Philharmonic. She also performs with Emmanuel Music, Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, Cantata Singers and the Boston Ballet Orchestra.

Newton Dialogues on Peace and War will present a panel discussion on "Paths to Peace in the Middle East" with Elaine Hagopian, Alice Rothchild and Martin Federman providing American, Israeli and Palestinian perspectives on the current situation. The talk will take place at the Newton Free Library on Wednesday, July 10, 7:00PM.

Hagopian is Professor Emerita of Sociology, Simmons College and was the major organizer of the first conference on the "Right of Return: Palestinian Refugees and a Durable Peace" held at Boston University in 2000. The recipient of two Fulbright-Hays faculty grants for research on Palestine and Lebanon, she held a visiting professor appointment at the American University/Beirut and was Distinguished Lecturer at American University/Cairo. She was appointed as a special consultant to UNICEF in the United Arab Emirates and as an Expert on a UNESCO team to conduct a feasibility study on Palestinian Refugee education. Her publications include studies on Arab-Americans, Israel/Palestine conflict, race, class and gender in national and international contexts and other subjects.

Federman is Co-Chair of Visions of Peace with Justice in Israel/Palestine and spends a significant part of his time working towards solutions for peace in the region. Last spring he was part of a fact-finding delegation to Israel and Palestine. He is a Jewish educator who has worked in a variety of Jewish educational and communal settings as well as the non-profit and inter-faith communities. Previously he worked in various capacities for the Jewish Community Centers of Greater Boston and was the Hillel Director and Jewish Chaplain at Northeastern University. Currently he is a member of the Strategy Team of the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization.

As a medical doctor Rothchild has been working on issues of healthcare and social justice and more recently has focused on the conflict in Israel and the relationship between American Jews and Israeli policy. Working with a group from Workmen’s Circle and a coalition of other Jewish groups, Palestinians, Arabs, Mideast scholars and rabbis, she helped organize a peace forum held at the Israel 50^th Anniversary Celebration sponsored by the JCC. She is also Co-Chair of Visions of Peace with Justice in Israel/Palestine which has dedicated itself to continuing education and outreach focused primarily in the Jewish community.

Newton author/composer Carole Lynne will lead an interactive workshop on the effects of positive thinking in changing one’s life. The program will take place at the Newton Free Library, Tuesday, July 23, at 7:30PM.

"Heart and Sound: Discover Your Soul Voice" is Lynne’s new book and CD package of original chants, affirmations and prayers. Using examples from the text, she will demonstrate how our thoughts can determine the shape of each day and how saying these affirmations can help create the life we want.

Selected local poets published in The Larcom Review: A Journal of the Arts and Literature of New England will read at the Newton Free Library on Wednesday, July 24, 7:00PM. Lenore Balliro, Connie Donovan, Edith Mueller and Matthew Sisson will read a variety of styles of original poetry.

Larcom was founded in 1999 by Ann Perrott and Susan Oleksiw. The review showcases contemporary work by writers and artists of New England and explores work of earlier times.

Author of Nobody’s Fool, which was made into a major motion picture, Russo was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his bestseller Empire Falls, also named the year’s best novel by Time. In his first book of short fiction, The Whore’s Child, Russo focuses on a fresh and fascinating range of human behavior. As with all his characters, we warm to these newcomers almost despite ourselves. A jaded Hollywood moviemaker uncovers a decades-old flame he never knew he’d harbored; a precocious fifth grader puzzles over life, love and baseball as he watches his parents’ marriage dissolve; an elderly couple rediscovers the power and the misery of their relationship during a long-awaited retreat to a resort island.

Critics and readers have embraced Russo for what Publishers Weekly calls his "astounding ability to present the tangled emotions of troubled parent-child and marital relationships with comic verve, bracing clarity and dramatic tension fused with an undercurrent of pathos." In this collection a master storyteller extends his versatility to demonstrate yet again that "there is a big, wry heart beating at the center of Russo’s fiction" (The New Yorker.)

During the week of October 7-12, the Friends of the Library invite Newton’s readers to take part in "One Newton, One Book." Participants will read A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines. This powerful story of race, injustice and resistance concerns an African American man wrongly convicted of murder in 1940s Louisiana and the man persuaded to visit him in prison to teach him to face his execution like a man. The New Repertory Theatre staged a powerful production of the book this spring.

The Friends will host discussion groups at the Main Library and the branches, present a panel discussion on capital punishment and hopefully spark informal discussions around Newton.

Start reading now! The Friends have purchased 30 copies for the Library’s collection. These Newton bookstores -- Barnes and Noble, Borders and New England Mobile Book Fair -- will offer the paperback at 20% discount.