For more information on any of the Library events,
please call the Library at (617) 796-1360

Gallery & Main Hall Hours

Monday to Thursday 9:00 am to 9:00 pm
Friday 9:00 am to 6:00 pm
Saturday 9:00 am to 5:00pm
Sunday Noon to 5:00 pm

Closed Sundays in July & August

ART EXHIBITION INFORMATION

Are you interested in exhibiting your artwork at the Library? The Newton Free Library presents monthly exhibits by regional artists in the Gallery and Main Hall of the main library, a state-of-the-art facility which 11,000 people visit weekly. Please click here for more information.

“Adagios” by Jennie Ray Bush

Jennie Ray Bush's Adagios: Black and White Photographs will be exhibited in the Main Hall September 2 - 29 with a reception on Thursday, September 9, 6:00 - 8:30pm. Bush's show is aptly titled after the slow movement in a work of classical music. These are soft black & white silver gelatin images, vistas of the Grand Tetons, close-ups of a dock in Maine or logs in the forest, showing the slow progression of time. With a background as art director in the publishing field, she has developed an eye for what works, capturing the viewer's attention and holding it. Why do we stand in wonder before a simple row of tall, slim, burnt aspens or mesmerized by the misty view of a pier across a flat, grey beach, the pilings reflected in the water below? Is it a hypnotic pull of the repeated vertical lines? Or the silence that surrounds the image?

Some of the magic is created serendipitously, she says, but much is due to her skill. Bush speaks of photography as a discovery, as she doesn't see the details until they look back at you. Then she sculpts this image from the development of the negative through the print process, so that the eye follows the horizon or a sunlit mountain range or the curve of the center of a dried sunflower, arranged with others on a plate. Bush has studied at the New England School of Photography and School of the Museum of Fine Arts and taken many workshops on the east coast and out west. A member of Argentum Fine Art Photography in Boston, Cambridge Art Association, Griffin Museum of Photography and other professional associations, she has shown at Mystic Art Association, Concord Art Association, Brush Art Gallery in Lowell and other places.

Boston Artists' Ensemble Cellist Jonathan Miller and Pianist Randall Hodgkinson to Perform

The Boston Artists' Ensemble will give a preview of its upcoming season at a concert at the Library on Sunday, September 19, 2:00pm. Artistic Director and cellist Jonathan Miller and long-time and regular participant, pianist Randall Hodgkinson will perform Beethoven's Sonata in D Major and Chopin's Cello Sonata in G minor. Seating at the concert is limited.

Now in its 24th season, the Boston Artists Ensemble presents chamber concerts by internationally recognized musicians at Trinity Church in Newton Centre.

Miller is a 33 year veteran of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Solo appearances include the Boston Pops, the Hartford Symphony and the American Cello Congress at the invitation of Mstislav Rostropovitch. He returned to the Congress in 1996 to perform music of Janacek and Bach. Currently a member of the renowned Gramercy Trio, he has toured the country as a member of the New York String Sextet. Miller has served on the faculty of the New England Conservatory and currently teaches at the Tanglewood Music Center. He has recorded the Beethoven Cello Sonatas with Hodgkinson for Centaur records.

Hodgkinson, grand prize winner of the International American Music Competition, has performed with the major orchestras of this country and abroad in Italy and Iceland. He is an artist member of the Boston Chamber Music Society and performs the four-hand and two-piano repertoire with his wife Leslie Amper. He is also a member of the Gramercy Trio. A CD of solo piano music "Petrouschka and other Prophecies" has recently been released to critical acclaim. Other recordings include a live world premiere of the Gardner Read Piano Concerto.

The Prester Piano Duo, a mother and son team composed of Robert and Marcia Prester, will perform solo and four-hand piano music by Beethoven, Gershwin and an original work by Robert Prester at the Library on Sunday, September 26, 2:00pm Prester's Sonata in F minor combines elements of the Romantic period, Latin music and contemporary jazz.

Robert's classical training began with studies in piano performance, conducting and composition, followed by an education in jazz. He now spends much of the year in Hawaii, where he has performed several Pops concerts with the Honolulu Symphony and been featured as guest soloist with the University of Hawaii Jazz Ensemble where he conducts seminars on improvisation. He has recorded "Trillium" and recently "She Devil," featuring original jazz and Latin piano works. The Rob Prester Group performs his original music in jazz festivals and other venues coast to coast. In recent years, he has performed solo classical recitals from Maine to New York to Florida.

Marcia has accompanied some of the country's leading soloists and performed in chamber music concerts with members of the New York Philharmonic in appearances at the National Gallery and the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. Earlier she appeared in recitals in Milwaukee and Chicago and performed with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra. Now she performs with her son and in chamber concerts locally and in Florida where she has a winter home.

The Jane Austen Society of North America's regional chapter will present a special guest at its upcoming meeting, open to the public. Joan Klingel Ray, Ph.D., President of JASNA will speak on "The Amiable Prejudices of a New Novelist's Mind: The Problems with Sense and Sensibility" on Sunday, September 12, at 2pm at the Library. Ray is Professor of English and President's Teaching Scholar at the University of Colorado.

Howard Frank Mosher has been praised as a "combination of Ernest Hemingway, Henry David Thoreau, and Jim Harrison" by the Los Angeles Times. From classics such as A Stranger in the Kingdom to last year's rollicking The True Account, Mosher's stories weave quirky characters with graceful language and laugh-out-loud humor. In his newest novel, Waiting for Teddy Williams, the author returns to the corner of northern Vermont he has made famous to tell a lively tale of growing up and loving baseball.

Hear Mosher speak on and read from Waiting at a slide show presentation on "Baseball and the Writing Life" at the Library on Monday, September 13, 7:30pm, followed by a booksigning. This event is co-sponsored by the New England Mobile Book Fair.

Waiting is the story of Ethan "E.A." Allen of Kingdom Common, Vermont, the spiritual home of the Red Sox Nation, where every radio in town is tuned in on game days and a replica of the Green Monster scoreboard bedecks the local bat factory. Living on the edge of town with his doting but hard-living mother, Gypsy Lee, and the sharp-tongued, Sox-obsessed Gran, E.A. divides his time between practicing his batting and trying to figure out which of the villagers could be his father.

After a mysterious drifter enters his life and patiently teaches him the finer points of the game, and when a new owner threatens the very existence of his beloved Sox, E.A. finds himself on the other side of the fence at Fenway Park, charged with breaking the team's nearly century-old losing streak and taking it all the way to the World Series. Engaging and heartfelt, Waiting is a very American story that reminds us that dreams, no matter how far-fetched, sometimes do come true.

The author of nine books, Mosher has received a Guggenheim fellowship, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Literature Award, New England Book Award and many other honors. His novels have been chosen as Book Sense 76 Top Ten Picks; three of them, including Where the Rivers Flow North, have been made into movies. A lifelong baseball fan and longtime coach, he lives in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom.

Library Poetry Reading Series Presents
Marc Widershien, Dorian Brooks and Fred Frankel

The Newton Free Library Fall Poetry Reading Series, coordinated by Doug Holder, opens with readings by Marc Widershien, Dorian Brooks and Fred Frankel on Tuesday, September 14, at 7:00pm.

Widershien is the author of The Life of All Worlds, a lyrical memoir of Boston. He holds a doctorate in Comparative Literature from Boston University, and has a broad background as a teacher, librarian and bookstore owner. His poetry, reviews and translations have been widely published. He teaches at a number of colleges in the Boston area.
Brooks is an independent scholar in women's history. Currently an editor at Ibbetson Street Press, she has had her own work published in many journals with a book of verse published, as well, A Pause in the Light.

Frankel is a well-respected retired Newton psychiatrist, originally from South Africa. With a new collection, Hottentot Venus, and poetry published in Concho River Review, The Iconoclast, The Larcom Review and other journals, he recently won the New England Writers Robert Penn Warren First Award.

Upcoming readings in the free series will be held on October 12 and November 9.

Join the Newton Conservators for a virtual walk along the Charles River Upper Greenway Path in Newton and Watertown at a slide presentation focusing on the surprising diversity of the urban landscape. This event will take place at the Library on Wednesday, September 22, at 7:00pm, presented by Watertown naturalist Carole Smith Berney. Berney's colorful and entertaining show features images of birds, waterfowl, cottontail rabbits, turtles, seasonal riverscapes and sunsets, and the people who walk, run, skate, bike, fish and birdwatch along the path. She will also discuss efforts over the last decade to restore the river banks as viable habitat for wildlife and to create a path that would have minimal human impact on the flora and fauna there.

Berney is a naturalist, wildlife photographer, nature educator and member of the Newton Camera Club. She exhibits her work locally and presents slideshows for libraries, community groups, senior centers, and elementary and secondary schools. Some of her images and publications have been recognized by the Mass. Cultural Council, Audubon Society and other organizations.

Prints of Berney's photos and her cards will be available for purchase at the talk along with the Conservators' publication "Walking Trails in Newton's Park and Conservation Lands."

Robert Pinsky to Speak on Favorite Poem Project

Former Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky will make a return appearance at the Library with Maggie Dietz, editors of An Invitation to Poetry: A New Favorite Poem Project Anthology. This collection and accompanying DVD gather 200 poems introduced by readers of various ages from every corner of the country. On Tuesday, September 28, at 7:00pm, Pinsky and Dietz will bring the project to life by reading some of the poems and showing some of the DVDs mini-documentaries, previously broadcast on PBS. A booksigning will follow with books from the New England Mobile Book Fair.

While Poet Laureate of the U.S., Pinsky started the Favorite Poem Project (FPP) by inviting Americans from all walks of life to write to him about a favorite poem. The collection is culled from the more than 20,000 letters he's received. This is the third volume in the series. Those who have attended previous Library events may remember Pinsky speaking of this project when he last appeared here or of the popular FPP evening the Library held. The Project began with two ideas: that a poem comes to life in a reader's voice and that contrary to stereotype - many Americans gain immense satisfaction from particular poems. Here are poems introduced by a crab girl from Maryland, an ultrasonographer from North Carolina, an acupuncturist from California, construction workers, attorneys, active-duty servicemen and retirees. Their comments are variously poignant, funny, heartening, tart, penetrating and eccentric.

For a reader unaccustomed to poetry or one who has fallen away from the custom, this collection demonstrates afresh the pleasure, comfort and excitement of the art. Pinsky is the author of seven books of poetry, most recently Jersey Rain. He is the founder of the FPP. Dietz is the Director of the Project. She lives in New Hampshire. Together they have edited two other books in the series: Americans' Favorite Poems and Poems to Read.

Gain your independence! Learn a computer skill at one of our free, one session, hands-on classes. Stop by a Reference Desk to sign up or call 617-796-1380.

Booklists Available

Looking for a good book to read or conducting research in a particular area? The Reference Department has compiled many booklists in a variety of subjects: African Americans in American Life, College Admissions, Books for Modern Parents, Buddhism, Day Trips, Gardening Guides, Rise and Fall of Saddam Hussein, Retirement and much more. Ask a Reference librarian at the YA Desk on the second floor for help in locating a list.

Garden City Cafe, Too!

The cafe we've all been waiting for has arrived at the Library in its cheerful location off the art gallery. Stop by for a muffin or a great cup of coffee in the morning or a satisfying lunch later in the day.

To Our Concert Goers:

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.

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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