Led by Anne Serafin, this group explores the rich variety of writings from Africa. The group meets on the third Wednesday of the month at 7:30PM in Meeting Room A. Meeting Date: January 18: When Rain Clouds Gather, a novel by Bessie Head from Botswana. For further information, call 527-1072.

Meetings are usually held on the first Monday or on the fourth Wednesday of the month at 7:00PM. This group is for writers who have work in progress. Pre-registration required. Please call Jacqueline Davies at 781-455-8334 or Karen Day at 244-4830 for more information. Meeting Dates: Monday, January 9 in the Trustees Room or Wednesday, January 25 in Meeting Room A.

Meetings are held the first Wednesday of the month, 7:30PM, in Mtg. Room A. Coordinator is Marilyn Miller. Meeting Dates: January 4: Revenge by Mary Morris; February 1: Gilgamesh by Joan London.

Contemporary Books Booklist

Meetings are held on the second Tuesday of the month, 7:15PM in Mtg. Room A. Members read books from the Great Books Foundation (available at the Library). Meeting Date: January 10: “Origin of Government” by Thomas Hobbes. For further info., call Ruth Greene at 527-4143.

Meetings are held at 7:30PM on the second and fourth Mondays of the month at the Nonantum branch. Coor-dinator: Amy Oppenheimer: amy.oppenh@verizon.net, www.newtoncameraclub.org. Meeting Date: January 9: Illustrated short story presentations by members; January 23: Competition on the Color Red and Open categories, judged by Sarah Musumeci.

In this women’s workshop, participants read, discuss and write about literature by women. The group usually meets the second Wednesday of each month from 10 - 11:30AM in Mtg. Room A. Leader: Robin Mayer Stein. Meeting Date: January 18.

This workshop provides an atmosphere of expert support to polish short fiction. It is geared for published writers as well as those who are actively pursuing publication. Leader is Michael Kaufman. Pre-registration is required: call 617-332-3347. The group meets the first Tuesday of the month, 7:00PM, in Meeting Room A. Meeting Date: January 3.

Meetings are held on the second Monday of the month at 7:30PM in Mtg. Room A. Group co-leaders are Mary Lanigan and Barbara McGinley. For further info., call 527-1505. Meeting Date: January 9: “Reunion” and “Puppy” by Richard Ford.

This group is for singers of all levels who enjoy singing classical and popular music. It meets monthly on Saturday afternoons, Noon – 1:30PM in Druker Auditorium. Meeting Date: January 14. Call coordinator Miriam Simen at 617-244-6705 for more info.

A group to support beginning writers of the short story, novel, personal essay or memoir. 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 Date: January 21.

Clarinetist/saxophonist Diane Heffner and guitarist/vocalist Kate Finn will heat up the Library at the next All Newton Music School faculty concert on Sunday, January 8, at 2:00PM. The program will include “Summertime,” “ Ain’t Misbehavin’,” “The Thrill Is Gone,” “Tenderly” and many more great songs.

Heffner and Finn have been performing together for 15 years. A conservatory-trained clarinetist, Heffner crosses over genre lines in her music to merge with Finn’s Detroit jazz style, which creates a uniquely rich blend of jazz, blues and popular music.

Finn has been on the blues, rock and jazz guitar scene, performing, recording and teaching for over twenty years. For the last ten, she has been a guitar faculty member and the director of the Music Lab at All Newton Music School. She has performed with members of the Boston Pops, Handel & Haydn Society and with Boston Blues legend Shirley Lewis. Finn can also be found gigging downtown in Boston in Wing and a Prayer, Five Easy Pieces, Vertigo Girls, Swingin’ Suedines and, with Heffner, in Absolute Groove.

Heffner performs with Handel & Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble, Alea III, Orchestra Emmanuel Music and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in San Francisco. She serves on the faculties of Tufts University and ANMS.

Flutist Vanessa Holroyd and pianist Joy Cline Phinney return to the Library for a concert of works by Bach, Poulenc, Prokofiev and Bizet on Sunday, January 15, at 2:00PM.

Holroyd and Phinney met at the 1998 Sarasota Chamber music festival and soon began performing together as a flute and piano duo. They have presented recitals for the Steinert & Son Concert Series, the Westford Chamber Music Society, the Whim Historic House Candlelight Concert Series in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands and the Arts Alive concert series in St. Thomas, U.S Virgin Islands, where they will be performing again in January, 2006.

Guitarist Gerry Johnston will present a concert of songs by Gershwin, Ellington and other jazz and popular standards at the Library on Thursday, January 19, at 10:30AM.

Johnston has been per forming throughout New England for 30 years at libraries, private functions and other venues.

The New England Gilbert & Sullivan Society (NEGASS) will present a video screening of the comic ballet “Pineapple Poll” on Sunday, January 22, at 2:00PM, at the Library. Door prizes and a "Name that Song" discussion will be included in the entertaining afternoon's program.

Based on W. S. Gilbert’s Bab Ballad “The Bum Boat Woman’s Story,” it weaves together tunes from the Savoy Operas in a pastiche created by the young conductor Charles Mackerras in 1951. The story takes place on the HMS Hot Cross Bun with the usual confusion, jealousy and mayhem abounding between a company of sailors and their sweethearts. It originally served as a curtain-raiser for “HMS Pinafore.”

The performance to be shown was created in 2004 by the Spectrum Dance Theater of Seattle, in conjunction with the Seattle Gilbert and Sullivan Society.

NEGASS meets several times during the year for lectures, performances, sing-alongs and other purposes. The Library’s Gilbert & Sullivan collection was enhanced by NEGASS’ kind donation of books, scores, videos and cds, in memory of its founder, Warren Colson.

 

Young virtuoso violinist Emil Altschuler and pianist Issa Stemler will perform works by Beethoven, Massenet, Vivaldi, Paganini and Wieniawski on Sunday, January 29, at 2:00PM at the Library. Seating is limited.

Altschuler’s solid technique and vigorous performance energy have been widely praised in solo concerts in New York and Boston. He has appeared throughout the eastern states in recitals at Harvard University, Yale School of Law, Cornell University and other colleges, as a featured soloist with both the Binghamton Philharmonic Orchestra and with the Aspen Young Artists’ Orchestra.

The Newton Democratic City Committee is sponsoring a public forum on “Emergency Preparedness: How Safe Are We?” on Thursday, January 12 at 7:00PM at the Library.

Lt. Hugh J. Downing of the Newton Police Department will discuss the measures Newton has taken since the devastating September 11, 2001 attacks to prepare for emergencies that may arise. Special guest will be Mayor David Cohen. Other speakers will include representatives from the Health and Human Services Department, Public Works Department, Newton Citywide Crisis Team and Newton Public Schools.

Among issues that will be discussed are what measures the City has taken to provide for emergency management in the event of a natural or man-made disaster, and what citizens can do to help themselves and the community.

NDCC member James J. Callahan will call the meeting to order and will preside over the Q&A period.

Joani Geltman, LICSW, will speak on the physical, cognitive and emotional changes that occur in adolescence and how these changes affect relationships with parents and friends and attitudes towards school. The talk will take place at the Library on Tuesday, January 17, at 7:30PM.

Geltman has worked as a therapist, parenting coach and school consultant for more than 25 years. She will offer advice on setting appropriate limits with one’s teenager, how to gauge unrealistic expectations vs. high expectations of teen behavior , how to develop effective tools for identifying and dealing with a teen’s experimentation with alcohol, drugs and sex - and other topics.

Geltman serves on the faculty of Lesley University and Curry College in Adolescent Psychology.

 

As one of America’s oldest towns celebrates its 300th birthday, a new book presents the vibrant recollections, insights, stories and anecdotes of its citizens both world famous and locally beloved. In Voices of Brookline, Larry Ruttman gathers their entertaining, nostalgic and often incisive testimony and weaves it into a rich oral history. Hear him speak at the Library on Wednesday, January 18, at 7:30PM.

In this captivating book with a foreword by Michael Dukakis, Mike Wallace recalls his childhood, Jane Holtz Kay praises Olmsted’s Emerald Necklace and Harry Ellis Dickson talks about the Boston Pops. There are stories of love, war, racism, rent control, urban development, presidential campaigns, great delicatessens and beloved bookstores – and even a few accounts by Newton residents, which will be highlighted at Ruttman’s talk.

A Rebecca Clarke Reader is the first major publication on the life and works of a remarkable woman and musician. As a noted violist, British-born Clarke (1886-1979) blazed trails for female performers of her time. As a female composer, however, she faced nearly insurmountable obstacles. In fact her music, composed mostly in the 1920s, has only recently gained recognition.

Learn more about Clarke’s life and work and the power and beauty of her music at a talk, illustrated with live and recorded music, by music historian Liane Curtis, editor of A Rebecca Clarke Reader. The program will take place at the Library on Tuesday, January 24, at 7:30PM, followed by a booksigning.

Curtis is President of the Rebecca Clarke Society, Inc., which is based at the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis University. A musicologist and cultural activist, she is also a resident scholar at the Center. Her articles on Clarke have been published in the

revised New Grove Dictionary, The Strad, The Musical Quarterly and The Musical Times. Recent presentations have been sponsored by the Royal Musical Association of Great Britain, J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles), and the Music Teacher’s National Association. She has taught at Wellesley College and Ohio State University.

Library audience members may remember her engaging talk in 2000 on composer Amy Beach and her successful campaign to have her name added to the Hatch Shell.

 

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 Introductory Meeting for anyone interested in tutoring will be held Thursday, January 26, at 2:00PM in Meeting Room A.

For more information, contact Susan Bécam, ESL/Literacy Program Coordinator, at 617-796-1364 or send email to legacyforliteracy@yahoo.com. You may also visit us at www.newtonfreelibrary.net/Services/Literacy/literacy.htm.

 

Career Counselor Joyce Picard will speak on Career Transitions Today at the Library on Monday, January 30, at 7:30PM. Picard will offer a realistic look at the world of work with an eye to assessing how and where one fits in. What are the options facing people, entering, re-entering or leaving the work force? What skills are transferable?

Picard’s book Common Sense for Careers: Mapping Your Way to Focus, Change, Satisfaction focuses on reconciling personal preference with the reality of the job market. Intriguing chapters like Paralysis of Choice, Unemployed at a Higher Level and Positive Drift offer strategies to those confused by current employment trends. Clear road maps outline steps in the planning of career change and growth.

Picard will also lead a support group for women in career transition starting at the Library in February. Come to the talk on January 31 to find out more.

Founder and Principal Associate of Career Counseling Associates in Newton, Picard has counseled hundreds of clients including re-entry adults, recent college graduates, mid and upper-level executives and professionals seeking career entrance, change and advancement. She has developed internships in many industries as a field placement specialist and published articles regularly in New England Employment Review. Picard is a National Certified Career Counselor and a Master Career Counselor designated by the National Career Development Association.

Timothy J. Kenslea will speak on The Sedgwicks in Love: Courtship, Engagement, and Marriage in the Early Republic at the Library on Tuesday, January 31, at 7:30PM, followed by a booksigning.

Sedgwicks in Love is a thoughtful and moving exploration of the changes taking place in the way men and women related to each other in the generation born just after the American Revolution – as reflected through the experiences of seven brothers and sisters of one prominent Massachusetts family, the Sedgwicks of western Massachusetts.

The sons and daughters of Speaker of the House and Judge Theodore Sedgwick and his wife, Pamela Dwight Sedgwick, had arranged marriages and affectionate marriages, failed courtships and successful ones, from which they learned the intricate rules of courting among the Boston elite in the 1810s. A case of domestic violence revealed how limited a woman’s options were if she wanted to end her marriage. A squabble over an inheritance reflected how severely women’s property rights were restricted. A sister, Catharine Maria Sedgwick, deliberately chose to forego marriage in order to live the life she had envisioned for herself as a writer.

Based on extensive research in little-known archives at the Massachusetts Historical Society, Kenslea’s study brings into sharp relief the possibilities and limitation of courtship, engagement, and marriage for wealthy, well-educated New Englanders in this time period.

The author teaches history at Norwell High School and edited high school and college textbooks for many years.