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: June 21: The winter issue of Granta, featuring writers from Africa. For further information, call 527-1072.

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, June 5 or Wednesday, June 28.

Meetings are held the first Wednesday of the month, 7:30PM, in Meeting Room A. Group coordinator: Marilyn Miller. Meeting Date: June 7: A Winter Marriage by Kerry Hardie.
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: June 13: The Origins of Totalitarianism (Part III, Chapter 10: "A Classless Society") by Hannah Arendt. For further information, call Ruth Greene at 527-4143.

Meetings will resume in September.

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: June 14.

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: June 6.

Meetings are held on the second Monday of the month at 7:30PM in Meeting Room A. Group co-leaders are Mary Lanigan and Barbara McGinley. For further information, call 527-1505. Meeting Date: June 12: “Little Selves” by Mary Lerner and “December Birthday” by Barbara Klein Moss.

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: June 17. Call coordinator Miriam Simen at 617-244-6705 for more information.

Led by career counselor Joyce Picard, this group is for women downsizing careers, entering or re-entering the workforce or thinking of opting out. It focuses on goals, allowing time to share concerns and gain support. Pre-registration required: Call (617) 332-7600. It meets the third Tuesday of the month at 7:30PM in Meeting Room A.

This group has concluded.

Margaret Felice, soprano, accompanied by Steven Morris, piano, will present a concert of arias and art songs by Donizetti, deFalla, Pizzetti, Faure and Barber at the Library on Sunday, June 4, at 1:30PM.

Felice is a member of Capella Clausura and Tanglewood Festival Chorus. An active recitalist and church soloist, she sings regularly across southern New England. First Prize winner at the 2003 Rhode Island NATS Song Festival, she works as a campus minister in a Catholic high school.

Morris has been working with singers as a coach, accompanist and music director for the past 20 years, currently at Tufts University. As an accompanist he has performed throughout New England, the Midwest, England and Italy. Recent performances include accompanying at the Gardner Museum, Georgia State Univ. and the Atelier Concert Series in Paris. He is also founder and Artistic Director of Boston Vocal Artists.

Erika Reitshamer of the New England Opera Club (NEOC), will present a lecture on “Birgit Nilsson: the Swedish Soprano who Tamed Wagner,” illustrated with recordings and video clips, at the Library, Sunday, June 11, at 2:00PM.

Nilsson, who passed away recently, was considered the leading Wagnerian soprano of her day; with a rock-solid technique and a voice of such soaring, unforced power, she was able to slice through the loudest orchestras with ease. She excelled at the larger-than-life heroines of Wagner and Richard Strauss - but also had considerable success in many Italian works, notably Puccini’s “Turandot” and Verdi’s “Aida.”

She made her debut at the Met in 1959 and conquered New York as Isolde in Richard Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde.” Thereafter, she appeared at the Metropolitan Opera more than 200 times in 16 roles. Nilsson was vivacious, good-humored and famous for her one-liners as well as standing up to difficult conductors and opera impresarios.

Reitshamer is a board member of NEOC who frequently travels to the opera capitols of the world to see performances by the great singers.

 

Celebrate Father’s Day at a concert in honor of J.S. Bach, the Father of Baroque Music! On Sunday, June 18, at 2:00PM, cellist Dale Henderson will perform three of Bach’s Unaccompanied Cello Suites at the Library.

Henderson has performed as a soloist with a number of orchestras, including New England Philharmonic and Mozartium Chamber Orchestra, and has also performed as a chamber musician at the Gardner Museum, Jordan Hall and Symphony Hall in Boston. Other orchestral experience includes Boston Philharmonic, Boston Ballet Orchestra, Chorus Pro Musica and National Tours for “Phantom of the Opera” and Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast.”

In 1993, world-renowned violinist Yehudi Menuhin invited Henderson to study at the International Menuhin Music Academy in Gstaad, Switzerland. He has also participated in the Taos School of Music Summer Chamber Music Festival, the Aspen Music School and Festival, the Banff Center for the Arts Master Class Program and Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival.

 

 

Mezzo soprano Thea Lobo and guitarist Daniel Ascadi will present a concert of works by Bellini, Piazzolla, Dowland, Schubert, Bartok, Edith Piaf at the Library on Sunday, June 25, at 2:00PM.

Lobo is recognized as a highly musical and versatile soloist and ensemble singer. She has performed many operatic roles and recorded original soundtracks by Marcus Staniec for Empty House Films. At the 2005 Boston Early Music Festival, she performed the modern-day premiere of Mattheson’s “Magnificat” for double chorus, one to a part, under Stephen Stubbs. She has also appeared in Sarasota’s La Musica Festival and the SoHIP concert series, and has performed in recital series for Trinity Church, Boston Secession, the Berkshire Choral Festival and King’s Chapel. This spring her solo engagements have included performances with Chorus pro Musica, Mass Theatrica, Harvard-Radcliffe Chorus and recitals for the Live at the Adams concert series.

Acclaimed as “a superb young guitarist” and “an extraordinary musician” by guitar virtuoso Eliot Fisk, Acsadi is known for his musical artistry and intelligence. He is committed to expanding the guitar’s repertoire as exhibited by his arrangements of Hungarian music, sonatas by Mozart and Haydn, and songs by Schubert, Brahms, Bellini and de Falla. As a contemporary music advocate, he frequently performs the works of Beaser, Seiber and Sierra. Programs performed in collaboration with Lobo often span 500 years of varied musical genres. He currently serves on the faculty of At Your Door Music in Wellesley and Artisan Music Studios in Boston.

Author Megan Marshall will speak on "Romantics in the Classroom: Mary Peabody Mann and Horace Mann in Newton" on Thursday, June 1, at 7:00PM at the Library. The talk concludes this year's Newton History Series theme: "Schooling Newton," presented by the Library and the Newton History Museum at the Jackson Homestead.

Peabody was a determined and passionate reformer who found her soulmate in the great educator Horace Mann. Mann moved Massachusetts’ first normal school (teacher training college) to West Newton in 1844, and later established an associated model school, run as a partnership between the state and the town of Newton. The Manns built a home on West Newton Hill, where they lived until Mann was elected to Congress and they left for Washington, D.C. in 1848.

Marshall has published numerous articles on women’s history and New England history and is the author of the widely reviewed and critically acclaimed biography, The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing by the author following the lecture.

There's still time to reserve your place at a special library fundraiser featuring Tim Russert of NBC's "Meet the Press." He'll be speaking on his new book, published just in time for Father's Day: Wisdom of Our Fathers: Lessons and Letters from Daughters and Sons. The talk will take place on Sunday, June 4, at 5:00PM and will be introduced by best-selling author William Novak who worked closely with Russert on the book.

Admission is $75 which includes a signed copy of the book. Please make checks payable to the Newton Free Library and mail to the Newton Library Development Office, 330 Homer Street, Newton, MA 02459. Please arrive at 4:30PM to pick up tickets and books. For more information, call 617-796-1400. Reserve early as seating is limited.

Back by popular demand, Brigham & Women’s Hospital will repeat its helpful lecture “Sleep Smart,” Tuesday, June 6, at 7:00PM at the Library.

Many people have difficulty getting a good night’s sleep. This talk by Dr. Kelly Carden of B&W’s Sleep HealthCenters will describe common sleep disorders (insomnia, restless legs syndrome, sleep apnea, etc.) and how to identify them. Carden will also review treatments that can help improve quality of sleep and provide tips on sleep health.

Green Decade Coalition will present "The State of the Charles River - the People’s River," a talk with slides by Anna Eleria, Charles River Watershed Association’s (CRWA) Project Manager and Engineer, on Monday, June 12, at 7PM. Learn about the current health of the Charles River watershed and CRWA’s efforts to protect our river and restore its ecological integrity. Eleria will also describe how Newton residents can help make a difference.

In her delightful new novel, How Elizabeth Barrett Browning Saved My Life, Mameve Medwed has crafted a smart and witty tale about love, loss, class, friendship and self-discovery set in the appealingly absurd world of antiques and the people who buy, sell and covet them. Hear her speak at the Library on Tuesday, June 13, 7:30PM, followed by a booksigning with books from New England Mobile Book Fair.

Thirty-three-year-old Abigail Randolph is having a tough time: her mother has recently died in an earthquake, her academic father has taken off for the west coast, her latest beau has left her for another woman, and her antiques business is on the skids. When a fellow dealer examines a piece of pottery Abby’s filled with a fake fern, he suggests she take it on television’s Antiques Roadshow. What happens next becomes a catalyst for disputes both legal and romantic, friendships dissolved and gained, paradise lost and found, love and sex both spurned and welcomed. Juxtaposing a love story dating back to antiquity with a modern comedy of manners, Medwed gives us a fun, humorous and intellectually engaging read.

Meet Boston Globe Chief Book Critic Gail Caldwell when she reads from A Strong West Wind at the Library on Thursday, June 15, 7:30PM, followed by Q&A and a booksigning with books from New England Mobile Book Fair.

In this exquisite memoir set on the high plains of Texas, the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic transforms into art what it is like to come of age in a particular time and place. Her narrative begins in the 1950s in the wilds of the Texas Panhandle, a place of both boredom and beauty, where she grew up surrounded by dust storms, cattle ranches and summer lightning and took refuge from the vastness of the land by retreating into books. Before she became a writer, though, she would first have to fall in love, live through the anguish and fire of the Vietnam years and defy the father she adored, who had served as a master sergeant in WWII.

Written with humanity, urgency and beautiful restraint, this is a story of a culture and history – of fathers and daughters, world wars and the passionate rebellions of the 60s and the way literature can shape a life.

The Russian-American dialogue of song and poetry continues at the Library on Thursday, June 22, at 7:00PM with local poet/translator Anatol Zukerman reading his English translations of poetry/lyrics by the famed 20th century Russian bards Bulat Okudjava, Vladimir Vysotski and Alexander Galich. The audience will also be treated to original recorded performances of music by the bards.

Okudjava was the earliest great bard of the Soviet underground art scene as well as a very popular playwright. Galich and Vysotski were popular protest singers; Galich was also a playwright and a member of the Soviet underground literary movement in the 1960s; Vysotski was also a famous actor, the star of the famed Theater-on-Taganka in Moscow.

Newton resident Zukerman is an award-winning poet and short story writer, with poems published in the anthology We Cannot Predict the Future, and other works of poetry and translation forthcoming.

 

The statisticians who study trends in retirement tell us that more than 50% of individuals eligible for retirement would actually prefer to keep working…That may be the case, but Discovering What’s Next: ReVitalizing Retirement (DWN) has a large number of individuals about to retire who can’t wait to realize their dreams of traveling. In fact, many individuals travel continuously during their first year or two after retirement.

DWN will begin a new conversation group this month for individuals who want to brainstorm with each other and hear from guest speakers about travel ideas and opportunities. The Library has a wonderful travel section and DWN also has travel resources in its HUB on the third floor of the Library. More information will be added as this DWN travel group discovers discounts, programs, travel clubs and destinations.

Participants will suggest ideas and issues of interest for the group to discuss which may range from ways to travel around the world to travel for individuals with disabilities or traveling on a tight budget. Other possibilities range from travel associated with volunteering, with learning a new language, learning how to cook, safaris, camping, biking, hiking, golfing, and travel to pursue all kinds of sports, hobbies or interests. This group may connect individuals with those who have already traveled to one's dream destination or who share an interest in a similar destination.

The first meeting of the travel group will be held on Monday, June 26, at 7:00PM at the Library. For more information, call 617-796-1419.

For general information on DWN, please look online at www.whatsnext.eboard.com or at the Library's website: www.newtonfreelibrary.net.

 

Dr. Muriel Gillick will speak on her new book, The Denial of Aging: Perpetual Youth, Eternal Life, and Other Dangerous Fantasies at the Library on Tuesday, June 27, at 7:30PM, followed by a booksigning.

Gillick points out in this important yet unsettling book, that the majority of us will get old and no matter what vitamin regimen, diet or exercise program we use, we will likely one day find ourselves sick or frail. How do we prepare, and what will we need?

With passion and compassion, Gillick chronicles the stories of elders who have struggled with housing options, with medical care decisions and with finding meaning in life. Skillfully incorporating insights from medicine, health policy and economics, she lays out action plans for individuals and for communities. In addition to doing all we can to maintain our health, we must vote and organize—for housing choices that consider autonomy as well as safety, for employment that utilizes the skills and wisdom of the elderly, and for better management of disability and chronic disease.

Most provocatively, Gillick argues that care should focus on quality of life, not whether it can be prolonged at any cost. “A good old age,” she writes, “is within our grasp” but we must reach in the right direction.

Dr. Gillick is Associate Professor of Ambulatory Care and Prevention at Harvard Medical School. She is a staff physician for Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates and also serves on the medical staff of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Faulkner Hospital. She has spoken at the Library on two of her previous books, Lifelines and Tangled Minds.