Sally Russell: Memories Recorded
Sept. 5 - Oct. 1

Robert Streeter: One and One make One
Sept. 5 - Oct. 1

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: September 20: Things Fall Apart, a novel by Chinua Achebe. 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 info. Meeting Dates: Monday, September 11, in the Trustees Room or Wednesday, September 27 in Room A.

Meetings are held the first Wednesday of the month, 7:30PM, in Mtg. Room A. Please read works in advance. Coordinator: Marilyn Miller. Meeting Dates: Sept. 6: Afterimage by Helen Humphreys; October 4: Skinner’s Drift by Lisa Fugard;

Contemporary Books Booklist - September 2006 - June 2007

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: September 12: The Persian Wars by Herodotus. For more info., call Ruth Greene at 527-4143.

Meetings are held at 7:30PM on the 2nd and 4th Mondays of the month at the Nonantum branch. Group coordinator: Amy Oppenheimer: amy.oppenh@verizon.net. Visit www. newtoncameraclub.org. Meeting Date: September 11: “What I Did This Summer” – members show slides. Also Sicily presentation by Nancy Jacobson. Sept. 25: “Developing Your Own Personal Style” by Steve Maka.

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: September 13.

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 usually meets the first Tuesday of the month, 7:00PM, this month in Meeting Room B. Meeting Date: September 12.

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: September 11: “The Blow” by J.M. Coetzee and “Marie” by Edward P. Jones.

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: September 16. 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. It meets the third Tuesday of the month at 7:30PM in Meeting Room A. Pre-registration required: Call (617) 332-7600. Meeting Date: September 19.

The vintage acoustic duo Outrageous Fortune will return to the Library for a concert of jazz, blues and folk music on Sunday, September 10, at 2:00PM. The duo features Chris Welles on guitar and lead vocals and Rod Thomas on harmonica, providing vocal harmonies.

Welles studied jazz at Berklee College of Music and was inspired by Ry Cooder and Spider John Koerner who reinterpret roots material with “funky rhythmic energy and sophistication,” he says. He performed solo at many clubs in the 1980’s. Thomas started playing harmonica in high school, influenced by Sonny Terry and Magic Dick of the J. Geils

Band and later toured as a singer with an a cappella group. The duo has released the popular and appealing CD “Lazybones” and has performed on WBUR-FM, at the Colonial Inn in Con-cord and at many area coffeehouses.

 

Music, poetry and an open mike will spice up the Poetry Reading Series on Tuesday, September 12, at 7:00PM. Featured poets will be Ifeanyi Menkiti, Mark Pawlak and Jennifer Matthews. Matthews will read and sing her poems accompanied by guitar and mandolin. An Open Mike will follow with a one-poem per person limit.

Menkiti has taught at Wellesley College for more than thirty years and recently became the owner of the Grolier Poetry Bookshop in Harvard Square, the oldest continuous poetry bookshop in the U.S. He has received a NEAaward and has penned three books of poetry: Affirmations, The Jubilation of Falling Bodies, and most recently, Of Altair: The Bright Light.

Pawlak, an editor at Hanging Loose Press, has had five poetry collections published, most recently, Official Versions, Special Handling: Newspaper Poems New and Selected and All the News. His poetry and prose have appeared in The Best American Poetry 2006, New American Writing and others. He is editor of four anthologies, most recently, Present/Tense: Poets in the World.

Matthews is an accomplished vocalist and poet with a poetry collection, Fairytales and Misdemeanors, and an acoustic CD, "The Sunroom Sessions," recently released. Her poetry has appeared in: Pen Himalaya, The Wilderness House Literary Review, James River Poetry Review, Ibbetson Street, Somerville News and others.

This series is coordinated by Doug Holder. Upcoming readings will be held on October 10 and November 14.

 

Sergey Antonov, cello, and Ellina Blinder, piano, will present works by Brahms, Bach, Barber and Stravinsky at the Library on Sunday, September 17, 2:00PM. Seating is limited.

Antonov has won several international cello competitions including the Grand Prize at the Sofia International Competition in Bulgaria, second prize at the Dotzauer International Competition in Germany and first prize at the Swedish Duo Competition. He has performed as a soloist with

the Philharmonia Di Nation in Palermo, a soloist with the Philharmonia Di Nation in Palermo, Italy, as a guest artist at the Chamber Music Festival in Tenerife, Spain and at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall as a winner of the Chamber Music International Ensemble Competition. He performs as an invited guest of Mstislav Rostropovich in national and European festivals. Antonov has made solo appearances with the St. Petersburg, Moscow and Budapest symphony orchestras.

Blinder was a top prizewinner in the Connecticut and Massachusetts Young Artists Competitions. She has performed solo and chamber music in Europe and the United States. As a collaborative pianist, Blinder has performed with members of Concertge-bouw and Boston Symphony orchestras. Together with violinist Lilia Muchnik, she performs frequently as Boston Duo which has appeared at the Library. Blinder is a founder and artistic director of the Chamber Music Festival of New England.

 

The Boston Artists Ensemble will give a preview of its upcoming season at a concert at the Library on Sunday, September 24, at 2:00PM. Artistic Director and cellist Jonathan Miller and pianist Randall Hodgkinson will present works by Beethoven and others. Seating at the concert is limited.

Now in its 26th season, the Boston Artists Ensemble presents chamber concerts by internationally recognized musicians at Trinity Church in Newton Centre.

Miller is a 34 year veteran of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and previously held appointments as principal cellist of the Julliard, Hartford and San Diego symphonies. Solo

appearances include the Boston Pops, Hartford Symphony and the American Cello Congress at the invitation of Mstislav Rostropovich. Currently a member of the renowned Gramercy Trio, he has also twice toured the country as a member of the New York String Sextet. He has recorded the complete Beethoven Sonatas on the Centaur label.

Grand Prize Winner of the International American Music Competition sponsored by Carnegie Hall and the Rockefeller Foundation, Hodgkinson has performed with orchestras in Atlanta, Philadelphia, Boston and Cleveland and abroad in Italy and Iceland, collaborating with such conductors as Leonard Bernstein and Gunther Schuller. He is an artist member of the Boston Chamber Music Society and performs four-hand and two-piano repertoire with his wife Leslie Amper. He is a featured artist on the Bosendorfer Concert  Series aired over WNYC-FM in New York City and has recorded for the Nonesuch, CRI, Albany and New World  labels.

 

Pianist Wanda Paik will present a concert of works by Mozart, Liszt, Debussy and Chopin on Sunday, October 1, at 2PM.

Paik has performed extensively throughout the U.S. and abroad, as a soloist with the Boston Pops and Boston Classical Orchestra with Harry Ellis Dickson, as a recitalist at the Fogg Museum and the National Gallery in Washington, DC, and under the auspices of the American Embassy in Brazil and Trinidad as well as at Yonsei University in Seoul.

Tatyana Yankovskaya, editor and publisher of Russian folksinger Katya Yarovaya's book of poetry Of Music and Words and producer of her CD of music, will speak in Russian on the outstanding talent and tragic life of her subject on Monday, September 11, at 7:00PM. The program, which will include audio and video recordings of Yarovaya's performances and interviews, will be held in Russian and will conclude with a book and CD sale. Yarovaya (1957-1992) has been called "one of the most talented bards of her generation" (Professor J. Taubman/Amherst College), known for her vibrant personality and wry wit.

Yankovskaya has organized concerts of prominent Russian writers, bards and actors in upstate New York. She has written articles on cultural topics as well as short stories, which have been published in the U.S., France and Israel.

 

Acclaimed filmmaker David Sutherland, whose 6-part series “The Farmer’s Wife” was called “one of the extraordinary television events of the decade” (Chicago Tribune), will come to the Library to show his first film “Down Around Here” and speak on his creative process on Wednesday, September 13, at 7:30PM. He will happily answer questions about any of his films following the film presentation.

“Down Around Here,” which premiered on PBS, is a short film about the closing of the Kitchenette Diner in Cambridge in the 1970’s and the end of an era. It’s about the old Boston politics, old Boston sports scene, the “no fish on Fridays” Catholic Church - the real Boston, according to the filmmaker.

Sutherland, a Newton resident, has established a reputation for intimate documentary portraits of unconventional subjects. His films have garnered him over 100 international film and video awards. Subjects range from “George Washington: The Man Who Wouldn’t Be King” to “Out of Sight,” a portrait of a blind cowgirl to “Paul Cadmus: Enfant Terrible at 80,” about the gay social satirist and painter.

He may be best known for “Country Boys,” which aired this past winter, and “The Farmer’s Wife,” about a struggling young farm couple in rural Nebraska, which was watched by 18,000,000 PBS viewers. “Country Boys,” about two teenaged boys growing up in Appalachia, determined to beat the odds against them, similarly touched a chord with its audience. The Boston Globe lauded its “compelling human drama, moving and unredeemingly sad. It provides the kind of rich, nuanced grasp of its characters more common to literature than television.”

 

This year's tasty barbeque, originated by Herb Regal, will once again be held at the home of Library Trustee Sandy Butzel and her husband John. On Sunday, September 17, from 3:00 - 5:00PM, Mayor Cohen and other elected officials and community leaders will be "Chefs of the Day," flipping juicy hamburgers and hot dogs. Proceeds will go towards purchasing new children's books.

Suggested contributions range from $25 – 250/ person. Please make checks payable to the Newton Free Library, indicate number in your party and send to Development Office, Newton Free Library, 330 Homer St., Newton, MA 02459 so that they arrive by September 14. Include your address/phone with your payment. After Sept. 14, call the Library at 796-

1407 for information on attending the BBQ. The event is sponsored by John and Sandy Butzel, Judy Austin and Herb Regal and Trustees Audrey Cooper, Beth Wilkinson, Al Costa and Len Goldberg.

 

No one better celebrates the universal in the particular than physicist/astronomer Chet Raymo. In his new book, he follows a curious line in England, illuminating the startling interplay of science, psychology, faith and the arts in our understanding of space and time. Hear him speak on Walking Zero: Discovering Cosmic Space and Time Along the Prime Meridian at the Library on Monday, September 18, at 7:30PM, followed by a booksigning.

Raymo uses the Prime Meridian – the line of zero longitude and the standard for all the world’s maps and clocks – to tell the story of humankind’s intellectual journey from a cosmos not much larger than ourselves to the universe of the galaxies and geologic eons. As in his highly praised The Path and Climbing Brandon, he connects personally with the story by walking England’s Prime Meridian across Southeastern England to the North Sea. This line runs almost directly through sites connected with such luminaries as Isaac Newton, John Harrison and Charles Darwin – from the village

where the first true dinosaur fossils were found to the Royal Observatory that houses Harrison’s clocks. From this vantage, Raymo tells the “story of constantly expanding horizons, of intellectual courage and physical adventure, of men and women who dared to believe that the universe was not centered on themselves.”

Raymo is the author of the novel The Dork of Cork and many books about science and nature on which he’s spoken at the Library, such as An Intimate Look at the Night Sky and Skeptics and True Believers. Professor Emeritus of physics and astronomy at Stonehill College, he posts weekly essays on his website: www.ScienceMusings.com.

Angelo Manoloules of Combating IDTheft.com will speak at the Library on Wednesday, September 20, at 7:30PM. His interactive program will address the subject of identity theft: how it happens and how to reduce our exposure to the stealthy crime.

Manoloules has conducted hundreds of seminars and workshops at many companies and organizations, teaching the action steps necessary to prevent/combat the crime and restore identity. He is a veteran of the Army Special Forces, Green Berets.

 

When they finally vanquished the Yankees on their way to sweeping the 2004 World Series, the Red Sox reversed their legendary 86-year-long curse. As Seth Mnookin chronicles in his new book Feeding the Monster: How Money, Smarts, and Nerve Took a Team to the Top, this success was the result of the carefully orchestrated efforts of the new ownership that took over the team before the 2002 season. But after the magic of 2004, the Red Sox' achievement began to be devoured by its unprecedented popularity and by fractious infighting within its front office.

Mnookin will offer a behind-the-scenes look at the team and the game on Thursday, September 21, at 7:30PM, followed by a booksigning with books from New England Mobile Book Fair.

An investigative journalist and author, Mnookin enjoyed unprecedented access to the team and was privy to the inner workings of the front office as well as the internal rivalries and conflicts that ultimately would threaten the entire operation. His book reveals the facts

behind the headline-grabbing stories and explores how decisions involving hundred-million dollar contracts were made as well as economic peculiarities of the game. Feeding the Monster shows what it means to buy, sell, run and be part of a major league sports team in America.

Mnookin grew up in Newton and is currently a contributing editor to Vanity Fair. He has been city hall bureau chief of the Forward, chief political correspondent for Brill’s Content and a media columnist and national affairs writer for Newsweek. Mnookin is the author of the acclaimed Hard News: The Scandals at the New York Times and Their Meaning for American Media.

The first  lecture in this year's Newton History Series, "Service to Others: A Century of Three Newton Social Service Agencies," will be held at the Library on Thursday September 28, at 7:00PM on the topic "It Took Several Villages: Community Child Rearing in 19th Century Newton.”  The speaker will be Dr. Larry Zuckerman, president of the Rebecca Pomroy Foundation.

His lecture will reveal the history of Newton’s first real charity, the Rebecca Pomroy Home for Orphan and Destitute Girls, founded in 1872. For more than sixty years, this institution provided a long-term, stable home for Newton girls with no one else to care for them. In his presentation, Zuckerman will describe the Home and also discuss the lives and beliefs of the three principal founders including Pomroy, the first Matron, who as a Civil War nurse cared for Abraham Lincoln’s wife and son Tad.

The Newton History Series is sponsored by the Library and the Newton History Museum at the Jackson Homestead.  Historical information on the Rebecca Pomroy Foundation is available in the Special Collections Room at the Library and the Newton History Museum at the Jackson Homestead.

Lipman is the author of seven previous novels, including The Pursuit of Alice Thrift, on which she spoke previously at the Library, and Isabel's Bed. She is a columnist for the Boston Globe Magazine.