“Broadway Divas & All That Jazz”

March is Cabaret Month and the Library is celebrating with a performance of “Broadway Divas and All That Jazz” by the Follen Angels on Sunday, March 7, at 2:00PM. Join Hildy Grossman, Jeanne LaForgia and Rieko Tanaka for a high spirited theatrical salute to Broadway’s first ladies: Ethel Merman, Mary Martin, Julie Andrews, Angela Lansbury, Gwen Verdon, Chita Rivera, Nell Carter and many more. Biographical stories and anecdotes about their idols will complement the program.
The Angels will be joined by guest artists Kenny Dantzig, drummer and MC for many of the rock-and-roll stars, and Jeremy Udden, well known saxophonist and New England Conservatory teacher.
Named after Follen Street where they met when studying at Longy School of Music, these angels are three classically trained, yet dynamic cabaret artists whose versatility ranges from twentieth century European cabaret music to American musical theater and jazz standards. They have delighted audiences at such venues as Scullers Jazz Club, Club Passim, the French Library of Boston, Longy School of Music, The Center for the Arts in Natick, Le Meridien Hotel and presented an hour long concert on Ron Della Chiesa’s “Jazz Song Book” on WGBH radio.

Library Presents Evening of Readings by Short Story Writers

The Library will present readings by three talented short story writers: Jon Papernick, Barbara Klein Moss and David Shrayer-Petrov with Maxim Shrayer on Tuesday, March 23, 7:00PM. The three collections share Jewish themes, a feeling of exile and an exploration of what it means to move on, yet carry the past along. A booksigning will follow the program.
Papernick was a reporter in Israel after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. His powerful, unsettling collection, The Ascent of Eli Israel, approaches the conflicts of modern-day Israel from unusual angles, with dark humor and a sense of the surreal. This is a work of vivid imagination by a fresh voice in American fiction. A native of Toronto, Papernick now lives in Newton.
Moss’s Little Edens is a magical collection of stories. Like Adam and Eve, her finely drawn characters have reached a crossroads in their lives, in stories set from California to New York. Booklist writes “Each of Moss’ surprising, beautifully constructed stories brilliantly illuminates the paradox of paradise: our longing for perfection and tranquility and our utter inability to sustain it.” The author lives in Maryland; her story “Rugweaver” was selected for Best American Short Stories 2001.
Love, talent and magic oppose -

totalitarianism and vulgarity in Jonah and Sarah: Jewish Stories of Russia and America by Shrayer-Petrov, edited and translated by his son Maxim Shrayer. From the deceptively simple narrative to the surrealist story, whether he evokes Russian everyday life or an accurate sense of an émigré’s alienation, Shrayer-Petrov shows that he is a powerful presence in Russian and Jewish literature. The author lives in Providence. Of his sixteen books, Herbert and Nelly was nominated for the Booker Russian Prize. Shrayer is a local author who is a professor of Russian and English at Boston College.

Remarkable Women of Mt. Auburn

Janet Heywood, V.P. of Interpretive Programs at Mount Auburn Cemetery, will return to the Library to present a slide lecture on “Remarkable Women of Mount Auburn Cemetery” on Thursday, March 18, 10:30AM.
This National Historic Landmark is the peaceful resting place of some remarkably outspoken women who changed the world around them. Whether born in a slave cabin, genteel poverty or a fashionable household, these 19th-century ladies boldly went beyond predictable patterns for their lives and spoke out for justice and humanity.
This illustrated lecture, in honor of Women's History Month, will recall some of Mt. Auburn's reforming spirits: Dorothea Dix, Julia Ward Howe, Fanny Fern, Harriot Hunt and Harriet Jacobs.

Author Margaret Morganroth Gullette will speak on her new book Aged by Culture at the Library on Thursday, March 18, 7:30PM.
Although Americans enjoy longer lives and better health, there is an increasing obsession with trying to stay young in today’s culture. What drives the fear of aging and the boom in anti-aging products? In this incisive and compassionate book, Gullette reveals that aging doesn’t start in our chromosomes, but in midlife down-sizing, the erosion of workplace seniority, threats to Social Security and media portrayals of aging. To combat the growing forces peddling aging as a decline, Gullette shows how society can be changed in this passionate manifesto. Part intimate autobiography, part cultural commentary, Aged by Culture makes a compelling case for a new interdisciplinary field of age studies.
Gullette is an activist, cultural critic and prize-winning writer of nonfiction. Her book, Declining to Decline won the Emily Toth award as the best feminist book on American fiction. A scholar at the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis University, she has written for the New York Times, Nation, Ms., and many other periodicals.

Employment and Training Resources in Newton is starting a job search series in cooperation with the Library. The first seminar, “Starting Your Own Business,” will be held on Wednesday, March 24, at 9:30 a.m. at the Library. The 3-hour program will be presented by Karen Sutherland, a Management Counselor with UMass, Boston, Small Business Development Center (MSBDC).
Starting a business is not always a smooth process. Prudence dictates that an “entrepreneurial spirit” will improve one’s chances of success with good planning, preparation and insight. This seminar will define the personal quali-ties and characteristics that constitute this spirit. It also will address topics central to business start up: business plan development, finance, cash flow management, human resources and marketing.
Employment and Training Resources is a one-stop career center offering workshops, job fairs and other resources including a resource room with access to computers, job listings and employment literature and knowledgeable staff to offer job search assistance.
The MSBDC regularly provides free and confidential management assistance to a host of prospective small business owners in the Greater Boston area.
To register, please call the Employment and Training Resources Career Center at 617-928-0530.

Jane Austen Society Program

The regional meeting of the Jane Austen Society will feature a talk on “Sense, Sensibility, and the Pursuit of Happiness” presented by Dr. Sarah Emsley of the Rothmere American Institute at Oxford, England. The talk will take place at the Library on Sunday, March 14, 2PM. All are welcome.

The Library Poetry Reading Series continues with readings by Elizabeth Doran, Sophia Lintz and Jennifer Matthews on Tuesday, March 9, at 7:00PM. The series is directed by Doug Holder.
Doran is Poet Laureate of the Jones Hill section of Dorchester. She has organized and read at many poetry venues throughout the Boston area. This past summer she received a grant to write at Vermont Studio Center. Her work is published in GLUE magazine, Spare Change and Poiesis.
Matthews’ poetry has been published in Ibbetson Street and the Somerville News; her newest poetry collection is Fairytales and Misdemeanors. Nominated for a Cambridge Poetry Award, she has been a featured reader at Stone Soup Poets, Dire Reader Series, Ibbetson Street and Poesy magazine events, Somerville Writers Festival, Out of the Blue Art Gallery and many more. She also is an accomplished singer/songwriter and has performed at the Kendall Café, Green Street Grill, The Middle East, Plough and Stars and many others.
Lintz is a poet and actor. She has been an active member of the literary magazine and artists’ collaborative, 96 Inc, for more than five years. She has worked as a teaching assistant for their Drama Club on Lansdowne Street and received a prize for her poem “Revolutions and Barricades” in the latest issue of 96 Inc. She attends Salem State College.
The next reading in the Library series will take place on April 13 with the Poetry Festival.

"The Secret of Great Lawns"

GreenCAP, the Green Decade Coalition’s Committee for Alternatives to Pesticides, will present David Mellor, Fenway Park Master Groundskeeper and author of The Lawn Bible: How to Keep It Green, Groomed, and Growing Every Season of the Year on Monday, March 22, at 7:00PM at the Library. A booksigning will follow the talk. The program is the highlight of Newton’s 8th Annual Alternative to Pesticides Month. In conjunction, a month-long display of related books will be exhibited in a lobby case near the atrium.
Mellor, a national sports turf consultant, will give advice on how to make a lawn child-friendly and a child lawn-friendly, how to build a great lawn with good soil, good seed and good sun, how to prevent weeds, insects and disease and how to apply the science and art of mowing Fenway Park to your own lawn.
Mellor has changed the way America watches baseball with his innovative waves, diamonds and other designs etched onto some of the greenest lawns in the nation — at Fenway Park and other major league ballparks. With a degree in agriculture and a specialty in agronomy/turfgrass management and landscape horticulture, he has also written Picture
Perfect: Mowing Techniques for Lawns, Landscapes and Sports.
Since 1994, GreenCAP has been a clearinghouse for safe organic approaches to landscaping and pest control and has produced two prize-winning videos. The website, www.greendecade.org/greencap.html , includes a referral list of accredited organic landscaping specialists. GreenCAP works in partnership with community and statewide health, education and environmental organizations.

Legal Series Talk on Hiring a Building Contractor

The Library's Legal Series continues with a program on “How to Hire a Contractor and Stay Out of Trouble” presented by Newton attorney Andrea Goldman on Wednesday, March 10, 7:15PM.
Whether you are thinking of purchasing a house that needs work, renovating a kitchen or bathroom, creating a conservatory or simply getting the roof redone or the house painted, this seminar will offer a lot of useful information. Speaking on construction law, Goldman will prepare you for the process of hiring home contractors, resolving potential disagreements and protecting yourself by following the guidelines provided by the Massachusetts Home Improvement Contractor Program.
A partner in Gately & Goldman, LLP, Goldman’s practice focuses on construction, business and employment law. A previous speaker on mediation in the Legal Series, she is also an arbitrator and mediator and serves on a number of national and international mediation and arbitration panels.
Look for more Legal Series programs in April and May.

Preparing for the Citizenship Interview

Do you need help understanding the naturalization process? The Library's Legacy for Literacy program is offering a class for intermediate to advanced ESL students who have applied for citizenship and are waiting for their interview appointment. The class will cover basic U.S. history and government. Students will also practice answering questions for the interview. The 8 sessions, beginning on April 1, will be held Thursday evenings at 7PM in Meeting Room A. The class is
limited to 15 students. Preregistration is required. If interested in attending, please call Susan Bécam, ESL/Literacy Program Coordinator, at 617-796-1364 or e-mail legacyforliteracy@yahoo.com

William Martin and Margo Howard Featured at Book & Author Luncheon

This year’s Book & Author Luncheon, sponsored by the Friends of the Newton Free Library, will feature Margo Howard, author of A Life in Letters: Ann Landers’ Letters to her Only Child and William Martin, author of Harvard Yard. The 20th annual luncheon will be held on Friday, April 2, at noon at the Newton Marriott. Details are listed below.
Picking up where his runaway bestseller Back Bay left off, Martin returns to Boston to bring the history of Harvard University vividly to life. Of the many Harvard legends, one of the oldest is the tale of how John Harvard’s parents were brought together by Shakespeare, who gave them a gift of an original manuscript. Now, Peter Fallon, the Harvard historian introduced in Back Bay, teams with other memorable characters from that novel and sets out to find those priceless pages that were thought to have been lost in the Harvard Hall fire of 1764. Mixing fact and fiction, blending the past and present, this riveting treasure hunt unveils the story of Harvard as it grows from a one-room schoolhouse to America’s most famous university. A graduate of Harvard, Martin is the author of 7 novels, including Cape Cod and Citizen Washington which have established him as “a master storyteller” and one of America’s most popular historical novelists.
In A Life in Letters, America’s most beloved columnist shares 40 years of advice through letters to her only child, published here for the first time. In this witty, wise, and intensely personal collection of letters to her daughter Margo, the late Ann Landers delivers her own unintentional memoir. The volume is both a moving portrait of a mother/daughter relationship and a keen social history of America between 1958 and 2001. Howard writes the “Dear Prudence” column for Slate.com, which is also carried by NPR and in 200 newspapers. She has written for the New Republic, The Nation and People.
Copies of the authors’ books will be available for purchase and signing at the luncheon. Tickets are $30 and may be ordered by sending a check, payable to the Friends of the Newton Free Library and a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Book & Author Luncheon, c/o 14 Trowbridge Street, Newton, MA 02459, before March 15. If checks are received afterwards, tickets will be held at the door. Please indicate choice of chicken, fish or vegetarian entree for lunch. Please call 969-4443 for further information.

Volunteer Income Tax Assistance  

Volunteer Income Tax Assistance offers free help in filling out tax returns or answering questions. Stop by Meeting Room A any Saturday before April 15, 2 - 4:00PM.

Please be considerate of the performer today as well as your fellow audience members and refrain from leaving the auditorium during a piece of music. If you have small children with you, please sit in the back rows. If you leave the auditorium between pieces, please close the door quietly behind you and wait to re-enter after a musical piece. Also, if you have a cellphone, please shut if off. Thank you.

Volunteers Needed

The Library’s Legacy for Literacy program provides free tutoring services for adults of limited English proficiency. Currently, the number of student applicants far exceeds the number of volunteer tutors. Teaching Basic Reading and English as a Second Language is very rewarding work. No prior experience is necessary as tutoring workshops are offered at the Library. An informative orientation session for anyone interested in tutoring will be held Wednesday, March 31, 7:00PM, in the Trustees Room. For more information, contact Susan Bécam, ESL/Literacy Program Coordinator, at 617-796-1364 or send e-mail to legacyforliteracy@yahoo.com. You may also visit us at www.ci.newton.ma.us/Library/Literacy/default_literacy.htm

Dewey's Diner Opens Soon

Be on the lookout for our new cafe off the gallery. Enjoy tasty breakfast or lunch fare while relaxing with a good book.

PLEASE DON'T SAVE SEATS!

When attending a Sunday after-noon concert, please do not save more than one seat as this deprives others of attending the concert. The rule is first come, first served.

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