In honor of African-American History Month, the Newton Free Library presents storyteller and musician Derek Burrows in a program of African and Caribbean folk tales, stories and songs. This program for adults will take place on Sunday, February 23, 3:00PM and will feature stories about life in the Bahamas and Burrows’ immigration to Boston as well as more traditional tales given in the griot storytelling style from West Africa. The audience will be invited to participate in songs based on African melodies and rhythms; for these he will use guitar, conch shell, the mbira or African thumb piano and other instruments.

The Baverstam Chamber Players will return to the Newton Free Library for a concert of music by Schubert, Brahms and others, Sunday, February 9, 2:00PM. Seating is limited.

This talented family ensemble is composed of Kristian, 20, clarinet, Madeleine, 17, violin and piano, Sebastian, 13, cello, Oliver, 9 violin and their mother Jennifer, piano. Over the past several years they have performed individually and as a group at Carnegie Hall, the French Embassy in Washington, DC, Sanders Theatre, Jordan Hall, Presidents’ Night at Boston Pops, Uppsala Cathedral in Sweden, the Fete Nationale de la Musique in Paris and at many other festivals and recital halls as well as on international broadcasts. The four siblings have won numerous musical awards and competitions and the family has premiered several original works composed for them.

Mass Brass, a versatile quintet known for its entertaining style and broad repertoire, will present a concert of music by Bach as well as ragtime, marches, swing, jazz standards and a Stephen Foster medley. The concert will take place at the Newton Free Library on Sunday, February 16, 2:00PM.

The members of Mass Brass have performed with many orchestras across the U.S. Their individual careers have taken them to some of the world’s finest concert halls: Royal Albert Hall in London, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Germany, the SemperOper in Dresden, Germany, Carnegie Hall in New York and locally at the Hatch Shell and City Hall Plaza. In addition, all of the members of the ensemble are also part of the US Air Force Band of Liberty, located at Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford.

Travel the rolling hillsides of Mongolia and outdoor markets of western China with seasoned photographer/traveler Rob Holmes at a travelog on Thursday, February 13, 7:30PM at the Newton Free Library.

Holmes’ Mongolian images will include the endangered snow leopard as well as visits with local nomadic herders, travels through the Gobi desert and winter horse treks. The Chinese photos will focus on the old Silk Road, sections of the Great Wall and the festive outdoor markets in the far west, Kashgar.

As part of its commemoration of African-American History Month, the Newton Free Library will present Boston College professor James M. O’Toole speaking on his recently published book Passing for White: Race, Religion, and the Healy Family, 1820-1920. The talk will take place on Thursday, February 20, 7:30PM.

Through the prism of one family's experience, who for a time owned a home in Newton, this book explores questions of racial identity, religious tolerance and black-white "passing" in America. Spanning the century from 1820 to 1920, it tells the story of Michael Morris Healy, a white Irish immigrant planter in Georgia, his African American slave Eliza Clark Healy, who was also his wife, and their nine children.

Legally slaves, these brothers and sisters were smuggled north before the Civil War to be educated. In spite of the hardships imposed by American society on persons of mixed racial heritage, the Healy children achieved considerable success. Their unlikely ally was the Catholic church, as several of them became priests or nuns. One brother served as a bishop in Maine, another as rector of the Cathedral in Boston and a third as president of Georgetown University. Of the two sisters who became nuns, one was appointed the superior of convents in the United States and Canada. Another brother served for twenty years as a captain in the U.S. Coast Guard. They also benefited from the support of white Americans who knew the family's background but chose to overlook their African ancestry.

By exploring the lifelong struggles of the members of the Healy family to redefine themselves in a racially polarized society, this book makes a distinctive contribution to our understanding of the enduring dilemma of race in America.

O’Toole is associate professor of history at Boston College and author of Militant and Triumphant: William Henry O’Connell and the Catholic Church in Boston, 1895-1944.

With the Women’s Health Initiative study that was published this past summer casting doubt on hormone replacement therapy, many women are now seeking alternative approaches to treat symptoms of menopause. Seibel will discuss menopause and perimenopause, the WHI study and the risks and benefits of hormone replacement therapy. He will then share his discoveries about the healing possibilities of soy, taken as a supplement or added to one’s diet, and how it can alleviate hot flashes and promote bone health, heart health and prevent cancer. Herbal remedies for menopausal symptoms will also be discussed.

A Woman’s Book of Yoga, co-written with yogini Hari Kaur Khalsa, is a comprehensive guide to healing body, mind and spirit using the ancient practice of yoga. The book includes chapters on using yoga to relieve stress, improve intimacy, prepare the body for pregnancy and childbirth, ease the symptoms of PMS and to promote natural beauty and healthy digestion.

Seibel is one of the country’s foremost reproductive endocrinologists and nutritional experts. Among his many academic posts, he served for nineteen years on the faculty of Harvard Medical School and is currently Professor of Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology at University of Massachusetts/ Worcester, with a clinical practice at Caritas Norwood Hospital. He has written 12 books about endocrinology and the physiology of reproduction and women’s health and has authored more than 200 scientific articles.

The Green Decade Coalition will present a talk by nuclear physicist Arjun Makhijani on "The Effects of the Military on the Environment and Our Health" at the Newton Free Library on Monday, February 24, 7:00PM. The talk is co-sponsored by Newton Dialogues on Peace and War.

This program will address the environmental consequences of nuclear arms production. Makhijani will use examples from the United States such as the contamination of the milk supply during the atmospheric testing program after WWII and the problem of radioactive wastes.

Makhijani is President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Takoma Park, Maryland. He has authored many articles, reports and books on health and environmental problems relating to nuclear weapons production. He has testified before the U.S. Congress and appeared on national television and radio programs including "ABC World New Tonight," William Buckley's "Firing Line" and "60 Minutes."

Tea will be served; please bring your own mug. Further information about Green Decade may be found at www.greendecade.org.

Lund covers poetry for The Christian Science Monitor and co-produces their online poetry site. Her own poems have appeared in The Connecticut Review, The Dalhousie Review and Yankee, among others. She has been a finalist for the Brittingham Prize and the Four Way Books Intro Prize. This past September, she read at the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, the largest poetry event in North America.

Beatman is the author of Ladies Night at the Blue Hill Spa. Her poetry has appeared widely in the small press. The winner of a Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant, she teaches English as a Second Language at Ames Envelope in Somerville.