Author Talk with Frye Gaillard, Author of A Hard Rain: America in the 1960's

On Tuesday, August 13th at 7 PM at Vineyard Haven Library, author Frye Gaillard will give a talk based on his newest book, 'A Hard Rain: America in the 1960's, Our Decade of Hope, Possibility, and Innocence Lost.' Books will be available for purchase and signing, and refreshments will be served.

'A Hard Rain' focuses on the 1960's, pivotal decade in American history. With graceful prose and a storyteller's eye, Frye Gaillard captures the hope and tragedy of the 1960s, beginning with the idealism of the civil rights movement, and ending with the violence brought about by the war in Vietnam. He also examines the cultural manifestations of change – music, literature, art, religion, and science – and so we meet not only the Brothers Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X, but also Gloria Steinem, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash, Harper Lee, Mister Rogers, Rachel Carson, James Baldwin, Andy Warhol, Billy Graham, Thomas Merton, George Wallace, Richard Nixon, Angela Davis, Barry Goldwater, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and the Berrigan Brothers.

“There are many different ways to remember the sixties,” Gaillard writes, “and this is mine. There was in these years the sense of a steady unfolding of time, as if history were on a forced march, and the changes spread to every corner of our lives. As future generations debate the meaning of the decade, I hope to offer a sense of how it felt to have lived it. A Hard Rain is one writer’s reconstruction and remembrance of a transcendent era — one that, for better or worse, lives with us still.”

Frye Gaillard, writer in residence at the University of South Alabama, has written extensively on southern race relations, politics and culture. He is former Southern Editor at The Charlotte Observer, where he covered Charlotte’s landmark school desegregation controversy, the ill-fated ministry of televangelist Jim Bakker, the funeral of Elvis Presley, and the presidency of Jimmy Carter. Gaillard has written or edited more than twenty-five books, and his award-winning titles include Go South to Freedom, Cradle of Freedom: Alabama and the Movement That Changed America; The Dream Long Deferred: The Landmark Struggle for Desegregation in Charlotte, North Carolina; Watermelon Wine: The Spirit of Country Music; If I Were a Carpenter: Twenty Years of Habitat for Humanity; Prophet from Plains: Jimmy Carter and His Legacy; and As Long As the Waters Flow: Native Americans in the South and East.

MV Library Association and MV Book Festival Event with Author Eric Klinenberg

The Martha's Vineyard Library Association invites you to join us at the Chilmark Library on Friday, August 2nd, at 3pm for a special event with author Eric Klinenberg in honor of his newest book, Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life. The talk, moderated by former president of the American Library Association Maureen Sullivan, will cover how shared spaces, including libraries, play a crucial role in bridging societal divides. Books will be available for purchase and signing, and refreshments will be served. This event is free, open to the public, and presented by the Martha’s Vineyard Library Association in collaboration with the Martha’s Vineyard Book Festival. For more information about the book, please visit ericklinenberg.com.

Eric Klinenberg is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University. He is the author of Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life (Crown, 2018), Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone (The Penguin Press, 2012), Fighting for Air: The Battle to Control America’s Media (Metropolitan Books, 2007), and Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago (University of Chicago Press, 2002), as well as the editor of Cultural Production in a Digital Age and of the journal Public Culture. His scholarly work has been published in journals including the American Sociological Review, Theory and Society, and Ethnography, and he has contributed to The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, Time Magazine, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, The Nation, The Washington Post, Slate, Le Monde Diplomatique, The London Review of Books, and the radio program This American Life.

Discover the Owls of New England

On Tuesday, July 30th at 7 PM, Vineyard Haven Public Library presents "Discover the Owls of New England," a program by well-known photographer and wildlife advocate Peter Christoph. In this captivating presentation, Peter delivers stunning photographs of his favorite owls combined with stories that entertain, educate and inspire the audience.

You’ll learn the secrets Peter uses to find and photograph these same owls in the wild in their natural habitat! Eight species of expected owls in New England include: Great Horned, Barred, and Eastern Screech – all year-round residents and fairly easy to spot. Long-eared, Short-eared, and Snowy are winter migrants and breed far north of us. Northern Saw-whet Owls do breed in New England but are quite small and rarely seen. Barn Owls have bred in New England but are the toughest of all to find. He’ll wrap up this exceptional wildlife program with beautiful images of a vagrant migrant--a rare visitor called the Great Gray Owl.

Peter Christoph has presented at photography groups nationally and locally, including the Photographic Society of America (PSA), New England Camera Club Council (NECCC,) and several camera clubs throughout New England. He has been the recipient of many prestigious national and international awards and gold medals recognizing his photographic talent. Peter has published three bird photography books, including his latest “The Art of Bird Photography.”

Explore Peter’s work at http://peterchristoph.com/

Register for Fall Literature Seminar with Phil Weinstein: "Fictions of the Law"

 

Register online

Philip Weinstein, the Alexander Griswold Cummins Professor of English Emeritus at Swarthmore College, will present the next in the ongoing program series "Islanders Read the Classics", with a six-part seminar "Fictions of the Law". This free seminar will be held on Wednesday evenings at the Katharine Cornell Theater, 51 Spring Street, Vineyard Haven.

"Fictions of the Law" will study three classic novels: Charles Dickens's Bleak House (1852), Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment (1866), and Franz Kafka's The Trial (1925). Participants are encouraged to read the books in advance, however it is not required. Copies of the books may be requested through your local CLAMS library.

According to Professor Weinstein, the series' title--"Fictions of the Law"--should be understood in at least two ways. "On the one hand, we are reading three classic novels that circulate obsessively around the concept of the law (both criminal and civil). But each novel does this in its own ways, and the three of them differ starkly in approach, implication, and resonance. The other way to understand "Fictions of the Law" is to grasp that "law" itself is held up to an imaginative probing (is shown to be in disturbing ways fictional) in all three novels.  You may come away from each novel wondering, afresh, what is law?"

In order to allow the library to prepare class materials and communicate with students, participants are encouraged to sign up in advance at the library, or register online.

Dates and reading assignments:

Wednesday, September 18th, 7pm
Charles Dickens, Bleak House

Wednesday, October 2nd, 7pm
Charles Dickens, Bleak House

Wednesday, October 23rd, 7pm
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

Wednesday, November 6th, 7pm
Crime and Punishment

Wednesday, November 20th, 7pm
Franz Kafka, The Trial

Wednesday, December 4th, 7pm
Franz Kafka, The Trial

Bright Star Theatre Family Performance of "One Small Step"

On Wednesday, July 24th at 3:30 pm, the Vineyard Haven Library presents a free, family-friendly performance by Bright Star Theatre. This program is made possible by the generous donations by the Friends of the Vineyard Haven Library and the Anderson Foundation, and all ages are welcome.

Bright Star Theatre will perform "One Small Step...The Real Life Journey to Outer Space." Few events in human history have captured the imagination quite like the journey that humankind took to the moon! This tale marks the history of flight and space travel from the ancient tale of Icarus, to the first flights of the Wright Brothers on the beaches at Kitty Hawk, to the Great Space Race of the 1960s and beyond! Your young pilots and astronauts will be thrilled to learn about the real life characters that took One Small Step!

Bright Star Theatre  is one of the largest professional touring theatre companies in the country, now in their 16th season. Based in Asheville, North Carolina; Bright Star Touring Theatre proudly serves around 1800 audiences from Tacoma to Moscow with over 56 shows a season.

Soul-Error: Philip Weinstein Talk and Reading

On Tuesday, July 23rd at 5 PM, Philip Weinstein will give a talk and reading at Vineyard Haven Public Library, based on his forthcoming manuscript, Soul-Error. Professor Weinstein describes Soul-Error as "a mix of essays about childhood, autumnal ruminations about the teaching profession, and speculative explorations about how we (the smartest species around) tend to get things wrong, and thus go through our lives mis-taking (and revising) our sense of how things are and what really matters."

Professor Weinstein will read from his essay "Vannie," named for the maid who helped to bring him up in the South in the 1940s and 1950s. The talk will explore what Vannie meant to the author and his family then, before setting forth what he has come to understand, years later, about those same social arrangements. It is a study in contrasts--experienced by the author and by countless other Americans as well. This event is free and refreshments will be served.

Philip Weinstein is Alexander Griswold Cummins Professor of English Emeritus at Swarthmore College.  He has been offering literary courses sponsored by the Vineyard Haven Library every autumn. His publications include Henry James and the Requirements of the Imagination (1971), The Semantics of Desire: Changing Models of Identity from Dickens to Joyce (1984), Faulkner’s Subject: A Cosmos No One Owns (1992), What Else But Love? The Ordeal of Race in Faulkner and Morrison (1996), Unknowing: The Work of Modernist Fiction (2005), Becoming Faulkner(2009), and Jonathan Franzen: The Comedy of Rage (2015). 

Playful Engineers at the Vineyard Haven Public Library

 

Please join us at The Vineyard Haven Public Library on Friday July 19th from 3:30-5:00 pm for a very special visit from Jay Mankita of Playful Engineers. This free program is best for children ages 8 and up.

Jay Mankita has worked with kids and families for over 30 years. He is a longtime musical activist in ecology, nutrition, and education. He has a strong passion for engineering and making things move, and teaches how he learns - with patience, humor, and lots of room for mistakes! In this hands-on, STEM focused workshop, participants design, build, test, and play with Rube Goldberg "machines”, plus domino constructions, exploding popsicle-stick snakes, and other awesome engineering explorations.

This exciting and educational hands-on program is made possible by a gift to the Friends of the Library from the Anderson Foundation.

Family Friendly Concert with Rolie Polie Guacamole

The Vineyard Haven Library presents a family-friendly concert with Brooklyn's "kindie" rock band Rolie Polie Guacamole, at 4:00 p.m. Wednesday, July 17th at the bandstand in Owen Park. Rolie Polie Guacamole's high energy, interactive shows are a mix of funk, rock, and folk music mashed into original tunes about natural living, eating healthy, and staying active. This free event is made possible by a generous contribution from The Anderson Foundation and the Friends of the Vineyard Haven Public Library.

Rolie Polie Guacamole lays claim to being the one of the hardest working bands in kids’ music, and that just might be true. They’ve released six albums and played well over 2,000 shows nationwide since hitting the boards with their first performance in 2007, receiving top picks from Boston.com, Time Out NY Kids, and Time Out Chicago.

Winner of the prestigious Parents’ Choice® and NAPPA Awards, Rolie Polie Guacamole has developed a smart, parent-friendly musical style that dresses up original tunes and classic covers with vibrant harmonies and deft instrumental layers, plugging in a sizzling electric current of rhythm that lights up lyrics humming with relevance and humor.

Meet Martha Hall Kelly at Vineyard Haven Library

On Thursday, July 18th at 7 pm, the Vineyard Haven Public Library presents an evening with Martha Hall Kelly, bestselling author of Lilac Girls and Lost Roses. The library will close early at 5:30 pm that evening to set up for this event on the Main Floor, and seating for event will begin at 6:30 pm. Books will be available for purchase, and refreshments will be served.

Martha Hall Kelly grew up in Massachusetts and now splits her time between Connecticut, New York City and Martha's Vineyard. She worked as an advertising copywriter for many years and raised three splendid children, while researching and writing her first novel Lilac Girls, which became a New York Times bestseller the week it was published in April 2016. Lilac Girls introduced the real-life heroine Caroline Ferriday. Her sweeping new novel "Lost Roses" is set a generation earlier and also inspired by true events, featuring Caroline's mother, Eliza, and following three equally indomitable women from St. Petersburg to Paris under the shadow of  World War I.

Art in the Stacks: Beneath the Barcode

This month, the Friends of the Library's Art in the Stacks gallery space will feature photographs from Media Voices for Children's 'Beneath the Barcode' project. Beneath the Barcode is a documentary photo exhibit intended to raise our attention to the impact of our economic choices on children.

The exhibit examines very particular sectors of child labor found in poorer parts of the world and across the United States. The show is a chance to examine how children factor into the production, transport, manufacturing, refining and distribution of all the things we eat, buy and use. There are scenes taking place everywhere, from dumpsites in Indonesia, to commercial farms in Texas.  For more information visit the project website, https://www.mediavoicesforchildren.org/btb

The Vineyard Haven Public Library's "Art in the Stacks" space features rotating monthly exhibits and is managed by the Friends of the Library. The library also has a permanent collection of artworks that are displayed throughout the year, including 12 paintings by Vineyard artist Captain John Ivory. Artists interested in showing their work may contact the library at (508) 696-4210.

Sunday with Friends: Honoring James H. K. Norton

On Sunday, July 14th at 2 pm, the Friends of Vineyard Haven Public Library present an afternoon honoring Jim Norton, South Asian scholar and author of "Walking in Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts". The program will feature an introduction by Nis Kildegaard, and comments by Bow Van Riper of the Martha's Vineyard Museum. Dr. Norton will read from his essays on Vineyard history. Refreshments in the library garden will follow the talk. The library will open at 1:30 pm for this event. 

Jim Norton is a 10th generation descendant of the first Norton settlers on Martha's Vineyard in the mid 17th century. He received a B.S. degree from Yale University, B.A. and M.A. degrees in Sanskrit from Oxford University, and a Ph.D. in Indian philosophy from the University of Madras in India. Dr. Norton spent five years in India, first as a Ford Foundation scholar while doing graduate work at the University of Madras. He taught for 10 years at the College of Wooster, where he was associate professor of religion and chairman of the Department of Indian Studies. He has also taught at Madurai University, Boston University, and Oberlin College. 

In 1973 he returned to Martha's Vineyard to manage the family farm, commit his concern for education to the Island public schools, and delve into the distinctive history of the Island's past. He has written a number of articles on Island History, Indian Philosopy and comparative Eastern and Western though, and is the author of "India and South Asia" in the Global Studies Series published by McGraw-Hill, now in its 9th edition. For more than a decade, Jim gave annual seminars as part to the Vineyard Haven Library's adult lecture series, beginning with a talk on Afghanistan, following the September 11th, 2001 attacks. 
 
--

The Friends of the Vineyard Haven Library support a variety of programs for both adults and children throughout the year, including an annual summer event honoring an author with ties to the Vineyard. Past honorees have included Geraldine Brooks, Art Buchwald, Stephen Carter, Phil Craig, Jules Feiffer, Lillian Hellman, John Hough, Jr., Ward Just, David McCullough, Holly Nadler, Cynthia Riggs, Rose Styron, William Styron, Shakespeare for the Masses creators Nicole Galland and Chelsea McCarthy, and Amor Towles. For more information contact the Vineyard Haven Public Library, (508) 696-4211.

Adult Programs: July Events

All programs at the Vineyard Haven Public Library are free and open to the public. Please join us!

7 pm Tuesday July 9th
Dick Johnson: Ticks and Tick-Borne Illnesses on MV
Dick Johnson works for the Board of Health of the 6 Island Towns through a program called 'Tick-Borne Illness Prevention Initiative'. He has been doing this for 9 years, and has a fair amount of experience and data, focusing on 3 common ticks on MV, their ecology and life cycles and the diseases they carry. He will cover the latest information on tick-borne illness and prevention, and will suggest ways to protect yourself, your family, and pets.

7 pm Thursday July 11th
Pseudoscience and Archaeology: How the Media Blends Fact and Fiction
Marie Kesten Zahn leads a discussion of how the evolution of science fiction has affected the public view of archaeology. Throughout the history of sci-fi, archaeological plot lines have become more popular in recent times. While this has furthered public interest in archaeology, the science fiction origins of the "ancient alien theory" have tarnished the view of legitimate archaeological studies. From H.P. Lovecraft to Indiana Jones and Doctor Who, the impact of the entertainment industry on archaeological research is examined.

3 pm Saturday July 13th
Adult Crafts: Glass Etching
Etch a design into a glass. In this adult craft, we'll make stencils with the Cricut cutter and then use etching cream on drinking glasses. We'll provide all the materials (including glasses) but feel free to bring your own glassware and designs. For adults and teens ages 12 and up. Sponsored by The Friends of the Vineyard Haven Public Library

2 pm Sunday July 14th
Sunday with Friends: James H. K. Norton         
The Friends of the Vineyard Haven Public Library are pleased to present an afternoon honoring Jim Norton, South Asia scholar and author of "Walking in Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts", as well as extensive writings on Vineyard history, India and South Asia. Nis Kildegaard and Bow Van Riper will provide an introduction, and refreshments will be served. The library will open at 1:30 pm for this event.

2 pm Monday, July 15th
Advance Care Planning Workshop
Are you interested in making sure your documents are in place should you be in an accident? Are you an older adult who wants your health care wishes to be honored when you approach the end of life? Join Healthy Aging MV for this introduction to Advance Care Planning. You will learn about options for health care at the end of life and discuss a topic that can be sensitive for families and perhaps difficult to broach with loved ones. Learn how to start “the conversation” so that your values are heard and your family--and your physician--feel comfortable and secure knowing they are meeting your needs. You will also learn about health care proxies and how to assign a health care agent, as well as other forms and documents to be kept on file. To register contact Healthy Aging MV, call 508-693-7900 ext 455 or email hbellebuono at mvcommunityservices dot com.

7 pm Tuesday July 16th
Nelson Sigelman: Martha's Vineyard Fish Tales
Author Nelson Sigelman will share stories from his book "Martha's Vineyard Fish Tales: How to catch fish, rake clams, and jig squid, with entertaining tales about the sometimes crazy pursuit of fish". The focus is on Martha’s Vineyard, but the information, fishing tips, and stories about Island characters will sound familiar to anyone who has spent time in a community of fishermen.

7 pm Thursday July 18th
Martha Hall Kelly: Lost Roses
Join us for an evening with bestselling author Martha Hall Kelly. Her runaway bestseller "Lilac Girls" introduced the real-life heroine Caroline Ferriday. Her sweeping new novel "Lost Roses" is set a generation earlier and also inspired by true events, featuring Caroline's mother, Eliza, and following three equally indomitable women from St. Petersburg to Paris under the shadow of  World War I. The library will close early at 5:30 pm this evening to set up for this event on the Main Floor. Seating for event will begin at 6:30 pm.

5 pm Tuesday July 23rd
Philip Weinstein: Soul-Error
Philip Weinstein, the Alexander Griswold Cummins Professor of English Emeritus at Swarthmore College will share his work in progress, a volume of essays entitled Soul-Error. Refreshments will be served. Professor Weinstein will read from his essay "Vannie," named for the black maid who helped to bring him up in the South in the 1940s and 1950s. The talk explores what Vannie meant to the author and his family then, before setting forth what he has come to understand, years later, about those same social arrangements. It is a study in contrasts--experienced by the author and by countless other Americans as well.

7 pm Tuesday July 30th
Peter Christoph: Owls of New England
In this captivating presentation, Peter delivers stunning photographs of his favorite owls combined with stories that entertain, educate and inspire the audience. You’ll learn the secrets Peter uses to find and photograph these owls in their natural habitat! Eight species of expected owls in New England include: Great Horned, Barred, Eastern Screech, Long-eared, Short-eared, Snowy Owl, Northern Saw-whet and the Barn Owl.

July 2019
Art in the Stacks: Beneath the Barcode
This month, the Friends of the Library's Art in the Stacks gallery space will feature photographs from Media Voices for Children's 'Beneath the Barcode' project. 'Beneath the Barcode' is an effort to raise our attention to the impact of our economic choices on children. For more information visit the project website, https://www.mediavoicesforchildren.org/btb