Newton Camera Club Exhibit
April 3 - 29
Opening reception on Thursday, April 5, at 7:30PM

Holocaust Panel and Art Exhibit

Led by Anne Serafin, this group explores the rich variety of writings from Africa. The group usually meets on the third Wednesday of the month at 7:30PM. Meeting Date: April 11, this month in Room B: The Book of Not by Tsitsi Dangarembga of Zimbabwe. For further info.: 527-1072.

International Chess Master Satea Husari from Chess Corps leads a drop-in club for players at all levels of skill on the third Wednesday of the month in Druker Aud. For all ages. Bring your own chess set if possible. Meet-ing Date: Wed., April 18, 4 – 5:30PM.

Meetings are usually held on the first Monday or on the fourth Wednesday of the month at 7:00PM. This group is for writers with work in progress. Pre-registration required. Please call Maria Gianferrari at 781-891-0153 or Karen Day at 244-4830 for more information. Meeting Dates: Monday, April 9, in the Trustees Room or Wednesday, April 25 in Mtg. Room A.

Meetings are held the first Wednesday of the month, 7:30PM, in Meeting Room A. Group coordinator: Marilyn Miller. Meeting Dates: April 4: Terrorist by John Updike; May 2: It Might Have Been What He Said by Eden Collinsworth.
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: April 10: The Bhagavad-Gita (from Mahabharata Bhisma-Parva – Chapters 23 – 40). For more information, call Ruth Greene at 527-4143.
Great Books Booklist - January 2007 - June 2007

This discussion group, led by former history teacher Reg McKeen, covers current events. The group meets in Room B on the first Wednesday of the month at 7PM. Please keep abreast of the month’s topic and come with reflections and opinions! Meeting Date: April 4. Topic: Iraq.

Meetings are held at 7:30PM on the second and fourth Mondays of the month at the Nonantum branch. Meeting Dates: April 9: Competition in Close-Up & Open Categories, judged by Mike Roman. April 23: “Shooting in Dramatic Light” by Don Crasco. Annual Exhibit at Main Library - see p. 2. Group coordinator: amy.oppenh @verizon.net, www.newtoncameraclub.org.

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: April 11.

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: April 3.

Meetings are held on the second Monday of the month at 7:30PM in Room A. Group co-leaders are Mary Lanigan and Barbara McGinley. For further information, call 527-1505. Meeting Date: April 9: “Miami-New York” by Martha Gellhorn and “The Broad Estates of Death” by Paula Fox.

Will next meet in May.

Led by career counselor Joyce Picard, this group is for women downsizing careers, entering (or re-entering) the workforce or thinking of opting out. For more information, call 332-7600. It meets the third Tuesday of the month at 7:30PM in Meeting Room A. Meeting Date: April 17.

The next All Newton Music School Faculty concert at the Library will feature the ANMS Jazz Trio, composed of Matthew Small, trumpet, Kendall Eddy, bass, and Ross Petot, piano. On Sunday, April 1, at 2:00PM, the concert will feature standards by Gershwin, Porter, Monk and original pieces.

Eddy has performed around the world and is a member of the Quartet of Happiness, Newpoli (Italian folk music) and, with Small, of the Ayn Inserto Jazz Orchestra. Small performs regularly with Daddio's Swing Orchestra and the Oberlaendler Hofbrau Band and composes in both the classical and jazz idioms. Petot, known for his performances of early jazz, can be heard regularly with the Blue Horizon Jazz Band, John Clark's Wolverine Jazz Band and the Back Bay Ramblers.

 

Pianist Pamela Kristan will present An Afternoon with Schubert’s Last Piano Sonata at the Library on Sunday, April 15, at 2:00PM.

Beloved for his songs, symphonies and chamber music, Franz Peter Schubert was also a renowned pianist in his day. The B-flat piano sonata was finished just weeks before his untimely death at the age of 31 in 1828. This last sonata embraces both joy and despair, timidity and boldness.

At this lecture/recital, Kristan will speak about the composer’s life in Vienna as well as the historical context of the sonata and its place among his works. Her live performance, which follows, will demonstrate Schubert’s intensely personal yet universal style.

Kristan is a performer, teacher and former music critic for the Maine Times and the Portland Press Herald. She performed in the Eastport Arts Center Summer Concert Series and has been a regular soloist, ensemble player and teacher in Downeast Maine and New Brunswick. She has written program notes for the Cantata Singers and in Portland, played with the Ram Island Dance Company.

 

Pianist Constantine Finehouse will return to the Library on Sunday, April 22, at 2:00PM for a concert of music by Brahms, Mozart and Beaudoin.

Recently praised for his “interpretations of depth and maturity” (Rhein Main Presse Allgemeine Zeitung), Finehouse has appeared in Symphony Hall, Jordan Hall, Alice Tully Hall in New York City and Salle Cortot in Paris, among many other prestigious venues here and abroad. A champion of music by Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award-winning composer William Bolcolm, he is recording his complete piano works for Naxos Records and gave the Hungarian premiere of two of his works on his tour with violinist Philip Ficsor as the duo American Double. He has performed in Holland and France as part of Holland Music Sessions and Classics Abroad summer festivals.

 

 

Emil Altschuler, violin, Josiah Altschuler, guitar, and Issa Stemler, piano, will perform works by Mozart, Paganini, Massenet, Wieniawski and others at the Library on Sunday, April 29, at 2:00PM.

Emil Altschuler’s solid technique and vigorous performance style have been widely praised in concerts in New York, California and Boston. He has been heard in recitals throughout the United States (often with his brother Josiah and pianist Stemler).

 

 

The Library’s Legacy for Literacy program provides free tutoring services for adults of limited English proficiency. Tutors are needed - no experience necessary. An Introductory Meeting for tutors will be held Wed., April 4, at 7PM in the Trustees Room. For more information, contact Susan Bécam, ESL/Literacy Program Coordinator, at 617-796-1364 or by email at: legacyforliteracy@minlib.net. Visit: www.newtonfreelibrary.net/Services/Literacy/literacy.htm.

 

Stop by Meeting Room A at the Library Saturday, 1:30 - 3:30PM, April 7 or 14 for free tax assistance provided by AARP Tax Aides, trained by the IRS.

In honor of National Poetry Month, the Library will present its 34th Annual Evening of Poetry, sponsored by the Friends of the Library. Martha Collins, Louisa Solano and Joan Houlihan will read on Tuesday, April 10, 7:00PM, followed by an Open Mike with a one-poem/ person limit. Refreshments will be served. This festival and the year-long series are coordinated by Doug Holder, publisher of Ibbetson Street Press.

Collins is the author of a book-length poem, Blue Front, as well as four other books of poetry: Some Things Words Can Do, A History of a Small Life on a Windy Planet, The Arrangement of Space, winner of the Peregrine Smith Poetry Competition and The Catastrophe of Rainbows. She has also edited a volume on Louise Bogan and co-translated two collections of poems from the Vietnamese, The Women Carry River Water by Nguyen Quang Thieu and Green Rice by Lam Thi My Da.

Martha Collins

In Blue Front, Collins dissects a horrific lynching that occurred in her hometown when she was a child. Booklist, writes: “Collins employs a staccato, matter-of-fact tone that strikes like a sledgehammer at persistent, if hidden, hate. More than worthy as poetry, Blue Front is also a powerful statement about America and a potent reminder of humankind’s terrible potential.”

Solano owned the Grolier Poetry Bookstore from 1974 until 2006 when she retired. Virtually everyone in modern American letters came through the Grolier’s doors in Harvard Square. Founded in 1927 by Adrian Gambet and Gordon Cairnie, it is the “oldest continuous book shop” devoted solely to the sale of poetry and poetry criticism. Solano, a 1966 graduate of Boston University and bookstore habitué since 1955, took over operation of the store after Cairnie’s death. She will read from her favorite patrons’ poems.

As a follow-up to the inspiring stories shared at the March Legacy program, DWN will shift its focus to Taking Action. On Wednesday, April 11, at 7:00PM in Druker Auditorium, Newton resident and non-profit consultant, Beth Tishler, will set the stage for an action-oriented discussion with a panel of experts including Sharon Driscoll, VP and Philanthropic Service Officer at Bank of America; Susan Turnbull, author of the new book The Wealth of Your Life: A Step-by-Step Guide for Creating Your Ethical Will; Leslie Pine, Senior VP, The Philanthropic Initiative; and Jim Thompson, Investment Advisor, The Village Bank.

At this program, you will learn from the experts how to begin taking action in creating your personal legacy whether through philanthropy, creating a charitable foundation, drafting an ethical will or bringing values-based thinking to your financial and estate plan.

DWN will sponsor several hands-on workshops at a later date to get people started on their legacy projects. This first year series is being sponsored by Village Bank and Community Newspapers. For more information, see www.discoveringwhatsnext.com, or call: 617-796-1419.

 

Ever read a great book that stayed with you long after it was finished? Would you like to share your impressions of that book in a creative way?

If your answer is yes . . . consider participating in our April Young Adult art display. All you have to do is create a piece of book-related art that can be displayed on a panel in the YA area on the second floor during National Library Week, April 15-21.

We hope to fill the YA space with your creative, artistic expressions. Submit entries by April 12 in the marked box in the YA area, 2nd floor. Entries can be drawn/painted on either an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper or on a bookmark-sized template that we will supply in the YA area. Please write the book title and author somewhere on the poster or bookmark, and sign your artwork with your first name only.

 

Matthew Pearl

The Friends of the Newton Free Library are proud to present Megan Marshall, author of The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism and Matthew Pearl, author of the bestseller The Dante Club and his latest novel, The Poe Shadow, at the 23rd annual Book and Author Luncheon. The luncheon will take place on Friday, April 13, at noon at the Newton Marriott.

Pearl is the author of two thrilling works of historical fiction. The Dante Club is set in 1865 Boston and revolves around the “Dante Club,” an elite group of scholars - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, and J. T. Fields - and their efforts to solve a series of murders inspired by scenes from Dante’s Inferno. Pearl’s new book, The Poe Shadow, takes place in Baltimore in 1849 after the death of Edgar Allen Poe at age 40. The Poe Shadow follows the efforts of a young lawyer to examine the mysterious circumstances of Poe’s death.

Pearl is also the editor of the new Modern Library edition of Dante’s Inferno, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Marshall spent twenty years researching and writing The Peabody Sisters with grants from the Guggenheim Foundation and NEH. Often described as “America’s Brontes,” Elizabeth, Mary, and Sophia Peabody played an integral role in the 19th century cultural phenomenon, American Romanticism, and had a profound influence on the literary elite of their time, including many of the protagonists of Pearl’s The Dante Club.

She has won many awards including the 2006 Massachusetts Book Award for Nonfiction, and was a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in biography.

To join these authors on April 13, please send your check for $32.50 per person (payable to the Friends of the Newton Free Library) to Book and Author Luncheon, PO Box 600533, Newtonville, MA 02460. Please specify the names of those who will attend the event and include a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Indicate your preference for chicken, fish, or vegetarian entree for lunch. Reservations received after March 31 will be held at the door. For more information, please call 617-997-7942 or email bookandauthor@gmail.com.

Megan Marshall

 

In honor of National Library Week, crossword puzzle constructor William Johnsto nof Watertown will return to the Library for a hands-on workshop in puzzle theme brainstorming and clue writing on Tuesday, April 17, at 7:00PM. Please bring a pencil and paper if possible.

Participants will work in small groups to generate theme ideas. A promising theme will be developed into a complete puzzle grid and participants will work together to write clues of the type seen in newspapers. A finished puzzle based on the workshop’s ideas will be available the following week via e-mail from the leader and at the Library.

Johnston has constructed crosswords that have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post and Boston Herald. His presentation last summer about the rules and conventions governing crossword puzzles, was extremely popular.

 

“Utterly fascinating. Cross and double-cross. Brutal’s lean, hard prose brings us dead center into Whitey Bulger’s mob – a world of deceit and brutality almost beyond imagination.” – author Michael Palmer

In honor of National Library Week, Kevin Weeks and Phyllis Karas will speak on their book Brutal: The Untold Story of My Life Inside Whitey Bulger’s Irish Mob at the Library on Wednesday, April 18, at 7:30PM, followed by a booksigning.

Weeks grew up in South Boston living a tough street life. He could have followed his brothers to Harvard on scholarship yet chose to work as a bouncer, soon after becoming part of “Whitey” Bulger’s mob.

In Brutal, he delivers a frank, unflinching account of his 20-year career in intimidation, loan sharking, extortion and murder. He divulges the gory details of Bulger’s famous hits and unique sense of justice, and reveals the full truth about his trusted associate’s dual existence as an FBI informant. With Bulger now on the run as one of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, he felt it fell to him to tell the true story. For his crimes, he served 5 years in prison and was released in 2005.

Karas is the co-author of two previous books: The Onassis Women and Street Soldier. A regular contributor to People magazine, she is also an adjunct professor at Boston University’s School of Journalism.

 

In Marc Chagall, acclaimed novelist and critic Jonathan Wilson strips away the sentimental mists surrounding an artist whose career spanned two world wars, the Russian Revolution, the Holocaust and the birth of the State of Israel. He brilliantly demonstrates how Chagall’s life constitutes a grand canvas on which much of 20th century Jewish history is vividly portrayed. Hear the author speak and show slides on his new book in honor of National Library Week at the Library on Thursday, April 19, at 7:30PM followed by a booksigning with books from New England Mobile Book Fair.

Chagall was a man of many faces: fiercely secular, yet drawn to religious subjects; often using a martyred Jesus as the focus of his paintings of the Jews' tragic past. Blending the modern art movements of Cubism and Fauvism with folklore, he became the emblematic Jewish artist of the 20th century.

Wilson is the author of two novels and two short story collections on which he’s spoken at the Library, and of two critical studies of Saul Bellow's work. His essays and reviews have appeared in The New Yorker, The NYT Book Review, The Forward, and The Times Literary Supplement. He teaches at Tufts University and lives in Newton.

In support of the Barnes & Noble Bookfair project, the Library has teamed up with Barnes & Noble in Chestnut Hill to present a Poetry Reading featuring Newton Library young poetry enthusiasts reading their original poems aloud. The event will take place at B&N, Chestnut Hill, on Friday, April 20, 3 – 5PM with participants from the Library’s poetry programs and Teen Advisory Board. For further information on participating, call Jean Holmblad in the Children's Room at 617-796-1370.

What does it mean to be a global citizen? Ed Wilson, CEO and President of Earthwatch, will speak about the organization's mission and its efforts to create concerned, active citizens promoting a sustainable environment. The talk, sponsored by the Green Decade Coalition, will take place at the Library on Monday, April 23, at 7:00PM. Earthwatch supports scientific field research by offering nearly 4,000 volunteers the chance each year to join research teams around the world. Their efforts are changing the way the world views science and its role in environmental sustainability.

 

From London, historians Diana and Michael Preston will make an appearance at the Library to speak on their new book Taj Mahal: Passion and Genius at the Heart of the Moghul Empire. The reading and slide show will take place on Monday, April 30, at 7:30PM, followed by a booksigning with books from New England Mobile Book Fair.

Constructed of a luminescent marble that makes the building shimmer and change color even on the most overcast days, the Taj Mahal is more than just a wonder or World Heritage Site. It is a love story, a devotional shrine, an emblem of a mighty empire, and a masterpiece of design. Built between 1631 and 1654 as a memorial to the beloved wife of Shah Jahan, the Taj Mahal epitomized the splendor and power of the Moghul Empire at its height. Over 20,000 laborers contributed to its completion including the greatest craftsmen, engineers, and artisans of the day. At the cost of 50 million rupees (half a billion dollars by today’s estimates), it remains India’s most popular destination.

In Taj Mahal, the authors give a far richer portrait of the memorial, one that casts the building in the long shadow of the Moghul Empire that stretched beyond much of India to present day Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bengal. The battles and the dynastic rivalries of Moghul history served as the foundation for the Taj Mahal. Its completion marked the beginning of the empire’s demise.

The Prestons are Oxford-trained historians. Diana is the author of A First Rate Tragedy, The Boxer Rebellion, Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy, and Before the Fallout: From Marie Curie to Hiroshima, which won the 2006 Los Angeles Times Award for Science and Technology. She and Michael co-authored A Pirate of Exquisite Mind, about William Dampier.

 

The final lecture in this year's Newton History Series, Service to Others, will be held at the Library on Thursday May 3, at 7:00PM. Mark Mancuso, Chairman of the West Suburban YMCA’s Board of Directors, will speak on "West Suburban YMCA – 130 Years of Service to the Families of Newton," portraying the history of a branch of one the oldest and largest human service organizations in the world: the YMCA.

YMCAs in the U.S. have a proud history of serving the people in their communities in a variety of ways in areas such as sports, health, education and summer camps. Learn how the West Suburban YMCA has impacted the lives of local children, youth and adults who have been supported by and participated in its programs.

The presentation includes slides of historic photographs, postcards, artifacts, and documents related to the YMCA’s earliest years in Newton, to the organization's move in 1910 to its present location at 276 Church Street and to its more recent years of growth and expansion.

The Newton History Series is sponsored by the Library and the Newton History Museum at the Jackson Homestead   Historical information on the West Suburban YMCA is available in the Newton Collection (Special Collections Room) at the Library and the Newton History Museum at the Jackson Homestead.