This group explores the rich variety of writings from Africa and will meet again in March.

Meetings are held on the first Monday or on the fourth Wednesday of the month at 7:00PM in Meeting Room A. 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, February 6 or Wednesday, February 22.

Meetings are held the first Wednesday of the month, 7:30PM, in Meeting Room A. Participants should read works in advance. Group coordinator: Marilyn Miller. Meeting Dates: February 1: Gilgamesh by Joan London; March 1: The Last Garden by Helen Humphreys.


Contemporary Books Booklist

Meetings are held on the second Tuesday of the month at 7:15PM in Meeting Room A. Members read books from the Great Books Foundation (available at the Library). Meeting Date: February 14: Billy Budd, Sailor by Herman Melville. 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. Group coordinator: Amy Oppenheimer: amy.oppenh@verizon.net, www.newtoncameraclub.org. Meeting Dates: February 13: “Shooting Editorial Assignments” by Kindra Clineff; February 27: “A Show and Tell of Funding Photographic Projects” by Carole Berney.

In this women’s workshop, participants read, discuss and write about literature by women. The group meets the second Wednesday of each month from 10 - 11:30AM in Meeting Room A. Leader: Robin Mayer Stein. Meeting Date: February 8.

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: February 7.

Meetings are held on the second Monday of the month at 7:30PM in Meeting Room A. Group co-leaders: Mary Lanigan and Barbara McGinley. For further information, call 527-1505. Meeting Date: February 13: “Powerhouse” by Eudora Welty and “Harmony of the World” by Charles Baxter.

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: February 18. Call coordinator Miriam Simen at 617-244-6705 for more information.

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: February 18.

The Library will celebrate the Chinese New Year of the Dog (4704) with artists from the Beijing Opera performing, followed by a program of traditional word games in Chinese and English on the afternoon of Saturday, February 11.

At 1:00PM, Beijing Opera singers and musicians from Shanghai will perform traditional Chinese music in theatrical dress and make-up, led by master er hu player Zhi Min Zhao and some of his talented students.

At 2:15PM, a Deng-Mi Hui activity will be presented, a program of Chinese and English word games composed by Sun-Shine Yuan, a well-known practitioner of the craft. Deng-Mi dates back 1000 years, when riddles were hung from lanterns under a full moon at the Chinese New Year. At the Library, the Deng-Mi will be strung from a height. Audience members may guess the answers out loud; a small prize will be awarded for the correct solution to each puzzle.

Warm up a winter afternoon with a concert of poignant, delicately played Yiddish folk songs with vocalist Rebecca Kaplan and tsimbl player Pete Rushefsky, at the Library on Sunday, February 19, at 2:00PM. Please come early to ensure admission.

Rushefsky plays “that old-world version of the hammered dulcimer quite deftly. The sheer strangeness of the sound to modern ears helps transform even the most familiar tune into something new and Kaplan’s haunting vocals help enormously.” - NY Jewish Week

The duo has entertained audiences across the Northeast including performances at the National Yiddish Book Center, New England Folk Festival, the Eastman School of Music World Music Festival, the Central New York Jewish Music and Culture Festival, the Congress for Jewish Culture and New York’s Tonic. Their new CD is entitled “On the Paths: Yiddish Songs with Tsimbl.”

 

 

Pianist Dmitri Shteinberg will return to the Library to present “Pre, Post and Neoclassicism: Haydn, Beethoven, Schumann  & Prokofiev” on Sunday, February 26, at 2PM. Seating is limited.

Shteinberg has appeared in concert across North America, Europe, Russia and Israel. His solo performances include the Jerusalem Symphony, The Italian Philarmonica Marchetiana, Israel Chamber Orchestra, Israel Camerata Orchestra and Porto National Symphony; he was a guest artist at the Sarasota and Summit Music Festivals, the "Oleg Kagan" Festival in Germany and Festival Aix-en-Provence, France.

Shteinberg is a prizewinner in 20 competitions worldwide, including the first prize in "Citta de Senigallia" International Competition in Italy. He is an Assistant Professor of Piano at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.

Learn about the life and career of a true Japanese geisha (art entertainer) at a sneak preview screening of Artemis Willis’ documentary “Nakie and Me: A Geisha Story” at the Library on Sunday, February 5, at 2:00PM, followed by a discussion with the filmmaker.

When Willis meets Kiharu Nakamura, an 88-year-old famous, former Tokyo geisha living in New York City, a 10 year partnership ensues resulting in the cinematic unraveling of a well-guarded mystery, transforming their lives.

Willis first met Nakamura in 1994 while working on a Martin Scorcese film. Fascinated by her new friend, she attempted to tell her story, only to find the legend the multi-layered geisha created about herself could not be penetrated. And so the film became a “meditation on the fox-like nature of reinvention,” the director says. “I use the history of geisha to explore the connections between war and memory, immigration and identity, performer and observer and the ephemera at the border between East and West.”

An earlier version of the film premiered as “Smoke and Mirrors: A Geisha Story” at the Museum of Fine Arts and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford.

Willis has worked in feature and commercial production, with Sarah Caldwell’s Opera Company of Boston and is currently a vice-president of the New York Film and Video Council. Originally from Weston, she now resides in New York City and has spoken on her work at the London School of Economics, New York University and other venues.

Before her death in 2004, Nakamura was one of the last remaining geisha trained in the tradition of pre-World War II Japanese tea houses, rising to prominence in Tokyo in the 1920’s and 30s.

Susan McLucas of Healthy Tomorrow will speak about Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Mali and her organization's work to end this devastating practice. The talk will take place Wednesday, February 8, at 7:30PM at the Library.

Healthy Tomorrow is a Massachusetts-based humanitarian organization dedicated to eradicating FGM in Mali, estimated to be practiced on 94% of the female population. Their Pledge Against Excision has gathered 17,000 signatures which have been presented to the legislature; it is hoped that a law will soon be passed against the prac-tice. McLucas will also screen a music video which broadcasts their message.

The Library and the Newton History Museum at the Jackson Homestead present the second lecture in this year's Newton History Series: Schooling Newton. Lynn Cad-wallader, Professional Development Coordinator, Creative Arts in Learning Division, Lesley University, will present "Teaching on Trial, Then and Now: Nathaniel T. Allen, School Reform and Social Justice," on Thursday, February 9, at 7:00PM at the Library.

Nathaniel Topliff Allen (1823-1903) and many of his neighbors became known as “the incendiaries and radicals of West Newton” for their support of educational reform, abolition and women’s suffrage. Allen served as principal of West Newton Model School, associated with the country’s first Normal School (teacher training college), and later opened the West Newton English and Classical School.  He promoted equal opportunities for girls, attracted Southern Black students, and created an early version of bilingual education for many foreign students. Many modern concerns are reflected in Allen’s life and work of 150 years ago.

Historical information on the subject is available in the Newton Collection (Special Collections Room) at the Library and the Newton History Museum.

David Hackett Fischer, winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for History, will speak on George Washington and the American Revolution, drawing on his books Washington’s Crossing, Liberty and Freedom and Paul Revere’s Ride. The talk on Monday, February 13, at 7:30PM, at the Library will take place as the paperback version of Washington’s Crossing is released. A booksigning will follow the talk with books from N. E. Mobile Book Fair.

Six months after the Declaration of Independence, the American Revolution was all but lost. Yet, as Fischer recounts in Washington’s Crossing, a riveting history filled with fresh historical insight, George Washington—and many other Americans—refused to let the Revolution die. While British and German forces remained rigid and hierarchical, Americans evolved an open and flexible system that was fundamental to their success. At the same time, they developed an American ethic of warfare that John Adams called “the policy of humanity,” and showed that moral victories could have powerful material effects. The startling success of Washington and his compatriots not only saved the faltering American Revolution, but helped to give it new meaning, in a pivotal moment for American history.

The Library Poetry Reading Series will present Daniel Tobin, Alan Albert and Naomi Feigelson Chase reading their poems on Tuesday, February 14, at 7:00PM, followed by an Open Mike with a one-poem per person limit.

Tobin’s work has garnered many awards: the Robert Penn Warren Award, "Discovery"/The Nation Award, a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and a Robert Frost Fellowship. His poetry has been anthologized in The Bread Loaf Anthology of New American Poets, The Norton Introduction to Poetry and elsewhere. Widely published in journals, he has authored three books of poems, Where the World is Made, Double Life and The Narrows, as well as a book of criticism, Passage to the Center: Imagination and the Sacred in the Poetry of Seamus Heaney and numerous essays on poetry. He is Chair of the Department of Writing, Literature, and Publishing at Emerson College.

Albert has published his poetry in such journals as The American Poetry Review, Kansas Quarterly, Wisconsin Review, California Quarterly and Mississippi Review. He has been a finalist in the Massachusetts Artists’ Grant Programs and won First Prize in the Worcester County Poetry Association Annual Competition. He has a manuscript circulating entitled, The Stars Are Never Holding On. A psychologist in Newton, Albert has taught literature and creative writing at a number of colleges.

Chase is a poet, journalist and fiction writer who has written numerous short stories and three books of poetry including The Messiah Comes to Somerville, and most recently, Gittel: The Would-Be Messiah. She has written for the New York Times, Village Voice and other publications and her poetry has appeared in such journals as Sojourner and Plough-shares.

The series is coordinated by Doug Holder. Next reading: March 14.

Amir Aczel, best-selling author of Fermat’s Last Theorem, will speak on a true mystery that blends philosophy, mathematics, history and occult science, Descartes’ Secret Notebook: A True Tale of Mathematics, Mysticism, and the Quest to Understand the Universe, at the Library, Wednesday, February 15, 7:30PM, followed by a booksigning.

Rene Descartes (1596 - 1650) is one of the towering and central figures in Western philosophy and mathematics. His apothegm, “I think, therefore I am” marked the birth of European self-consciousness, while his creation of Cartesian coordinates has made our intellectual conquest of physical space possible from the Global Positioning System to the pixels on our computer screens.

But Descartes had a mysterious and mystical side as well. He was almost certainly a member of the occult brotherhood of the Rosicrucians, and he kept a secret notebook, now lost, most of which was written in code. All we have left are the hastily scribbled notes of the great mathematician Leibniz who was able to decipher a few pages of it.

“The Possibilities of Place: Housing Options for the Next Life Stage,” a Discovering What’s Next forum, will be held on Thursday, February l6, at 7:00PM at the Library.

Across the country, each year more than half of newly retired adults will decide to change something about their living arrangements. This is often a time to create the house of one’s dreams. There are many possibilities, from choosing to remain in place, to relocating

to a warmer climate, moving to a property managed by a professional company, beginning a new life in an active retirement community, joining a co-housing community, or even moving in with our adult children.

This moderated forum is being held in response to the many requests DWN has received to explore housing choices for midlife and older adults. It will feature panelists who will address questions such as what to consider when thinking about where to live; what types of living arrangements are available; what services does the community provide (or should it provide) for those who wish to remain in place.

Mark and Nancy Fernandez Mills, producers of the new TV show “Boomers! Redefining Life After Fifty,” airing on Channel 44, will moderate this interactive program. Panelists are Charles Harris, Professor Emeritus, School of Design, Harvard University; Andrea Cohen, Co-founder and CEO, HouseWorks; and Jean LeVaux, Realtor and community consultant. There will be time for questions and answers.

The Discovering What’s Next HUB is a clearinghouse of information, direction and connection for those making the journey to or transition through retirement. For more information call 617-796-1419, e-mail dwnext @comcast.net or visit the Library web site at www.newtonfreelibrary.net and click on Discovering What’s Next.

 

It's tax time once again and volunteers from AARP Tax-Aide, trained by the IRS, will be on hand in Meeting Room A on Saturdays beginning February 18, from 2 - 4PM, to answer questions and help people fill out basic tax returns. Come now as there will be more time for assistance.

Kerry Emanuel will speak on "Why Are Hurricanes Growing Stronger?" at the Library on Monday, February 27, at 7:00PM, as part of the Green Decade Coalition's Speaker Series.

The Library and the Newton Human Rights Commission will co-sponsor a forum on “The Reality of School Desegregation Today,” with an author talk, film screening, discussion and booksigning at the Library on Tuesday, February 28, at 7:00PM.

Marianne Ferguson, Chair of the Newton Human Rights Commission, will introduce the evening with writer Clara Silverstein offering an historical perspective on busing and school integration. Her poignant book, White Girl: A Story of School Desegregation, recalls firsthand the upheaval surrounding the court-ordered busing of children in the early 1970s as well as the author’s uncomfortable and often precarious role in the racial minority. Set in Richmond, VA, this achingly honest story confronts us with powerful questions about racism and the use of our schools to engineer social change.

“Far From Home,” a documentary film by Rachel Tsutsumi (2004) is a contemporary look at school integration – seen through the eyes of one girl who participated in METCO, a voluntary program that promotes quality integrated educational opportunities for urban and suburban students in the Greater Boston community. Since kindergarten, Kandice Sumner, an insightful African-American teenager, has taken a bus out to the public schools of Weston. The movie documents her conflicted feelings and keen observations about traversing these two worlds and also reveals the civil rights experiences of her mother and grandfather.