Online: Documentary Screening & Discussion with the Director of "Beyond the Mask"

 

For National Poetry Month, the Chilmark, Vineyard Haven, West Tisbury and Edgartown libraries present an opportunity to view the film “Beyond the Mask,” a documentary about Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906), the first African American to achieve national fame as a writer. Library patrons are invited to self-screen the film from April 8-12, and join us online on Saturday, April 10 at 6 pm to  meet the director, Dr. Frederick Lewis, as he speaks about his film and the legacy of Paul Laurence Dunbar.

Dunbar’s story strongly reflects the African American experience around the turn of the century. Born to former slaves in Dayton, Ohio, where he was boyhood friends with the Wright Brothers, Dunbar is best remembered for his poem “We Wear The Mask” and for lines from “Sympathy” that became the title of Maya Angelou’s famous autobiography “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.” Dunbar, whom abolitionist Frederick Douglass called “the most promising young colored man in America,” wrote widely published essays critical of Jim Crow laws, lynching and what was commonly called “The Negro Problem.” However, to earn a living, he also wrote poems and short stories in “Plantation dialect” and contributed lyrics for Broadway musicals that bordered on blackface minstrelsy. Link to the trailer: https://vimeo.com/253063876

Participants will be able to stream the film 'Beyond the Mask' on their own time from April 8th - April 12th (a link to access the film will be sent out to registered participants on April 8th). 

Contact Library Program Coordinator Anne McDonough at amcdonough@clamsnet.org to register.

Online Events for Poetry Month

This April, poet and fiction writer Michael West will lead a Poetry Writing Workshop in four weekly hour-long sessions on Saturdays at 2 pm, April 3rd - April 24th. Join the group online and bring what you’ve written, and get a respectful listen and constructive feedback with an aim to facilitate your growth as a poet. All forms are welcome - sonnets, song lyrics, hip hop, heartbreak confessions, vers libre, spoken word, villanelles, you get the idea!

Michael is a graduate of Williams College where he founded and edited the poetry magazine, rag. He received an MA in Creative Writing, Poetry, from Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars. He has also taught writing and conducted creative writing classes at John Hopkins, American University, Northeastern University and Featherstone Center for the Arts. To register for this series on Zoom, visit:  https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMuceihqTsuGtwhwOXZibOqb-gvmaiJs1CC

Also in April, the Martha's Vineyard Poetry Reading Group will meet on Zoom at 10:30 am Tuesday April 6th. This is an interactive group that meets monthly. The meeting leader selects a poem(s), from the earliest Greeks to contemporary, to be read and discussed as a community, which always adds new dimensions to understanding. The MV Poetry Reading Group has been meeting for over 10 years and wants to stress how much more we get out of the poems when shared and discussed.

The Martha's Vineyard Haiku Club meets monthly, led by Caroline Joy Adams, author of five published books, including The Power to Write: Seven Keys to Discover Your Writer Within. Her newest title, Have Fun with Haiku, was published in December. The theme for this month's session: "New Possibilities ," and the online meeting will be at 6 pm on Tuesday April 27th.

Contact Library Program Coordinator Anne McDonough at amcdonough@clamsnet.org for Zoom access information.

Online: Healthy Aging MV Panel Discussions on Older Adult (50+) Employment

 

Healthy Aging Martha's Vineyard and partners are hosting two "A State-of -the-Island" lively and informative virtual panel discussions on Older Adult (50+) Employment.

The first session will be focused on resources to support Older Adult employment, while the second will focus on what island employers want and how to sell yourself to find the right position.

When are these sessions?

First session: Wednesday, April 7 5:30-6:30 pm
Second session: Wednesday, April 14 5:30-6:30 pm

Who should attend?

Older adults who are seeking employment (either currently employed or want to be)
Organizations who serve our older adults so they can be informed about the resources presented
Island Employers

For more information CLICK HERE to view the official event flyer
To register for the upcoming sessions CLICK HERE!

Free Online Access to New York Times Online

 

Martha's Vineyard library patrons now have free access the New York Times online. Simply click HERE and enter the code c59d2806040934a2. Create a username and password that you may use for your first login and for every future visit to the New York Times online.

Your code will give you unlimited access to articles for 72 hours. When your 72 hour access expires, simply return to our website to activate a redemption code for additional 72 hours of access with your New York Times account.

Complimentary access to NYTimes.com is sponsored by the Martha's Vineyard Library Association.

"Women of Martha's Vineyard" Virtual Gallery

March is Women's History Month! Please join us in celebrating by learning about some of the wonderful women of Martha's Vineyard in our special feature virtual gallery, "Women of Martha's Vineyard."

Thank you to all of the amazing and empowering women who make up our beautiful community and provide inspiring footprints for our youth to follow!

For more information please contact Children's Librarian Emily at the library.

Online Event: Booby-trapped -- The Bra in America

 

Ehris Urban and Velya Jancz-Urban of Grounded Goodwife present an uplifting look at the history of the bra in America. Before the bra was invented, corsets lifted breasts to artificial heights—but they pushed from below instead of lifting from above. In 1913, using two pocket handkerchiefs and some pink ribbon, socialite Mary Phelps Jacob created the “backless brassiere,” and became the first patent recipient for the modern bra. From Jacob’s invention, to the bullet bra of the 40s, to modern-day pillow cup push-up plunge bras, our boobs have been cinched, flattened down, and lifted up.

You can discover a lot about women in history by how much cleavage was showing, and the era’s most desirable breast shape. While it can be argued that a bra is a necessity—­­not an accessory—one of the best feelings at the end of the day is to release ourselves. One thing’s for certain: the American Woman is still waiting for her ideal brassiere!

Co-hosted with the Chilmark Public Library. Please contact amcdonough@clamsnet.org or tthorpe@clamsnet.org for meeting access.

Online: Faulkner's Masterpieces with Phil Weinstein

Beginning in April, Philip Weinstein will present a nine week seminar on the master works of William Faulkner. The seminar will be hosted on Zoom by Swarthmore College's Lifelong Learning program, weekly on Wednesdays from 7:00 to 8:30 pm, April 7th through June 2.

Professor Weinstein and Lifelong Learning Swarthmore have generously arranged for Vineyard library patrons to participate in this program at no charge. In order to sign up for complimentary access, please register through the library's event calendar. Zoom login will be sent to registered library participants prior to the first session on April 7th.

William Faulkner—arguably America’s greatest 20th-century novelist and Nobel Laureate in 1949—launched his career as a Joyce-inspired modernist. But, a lifelong Southerner, Faulkner found his supreme subject in his country’s ordeal of race. Following the poetic stream of consciousness of The Sound and the Fury (1929), the fallout of racial brutality in the South lodges at the center of Light in August (1932). The human cost of racism attains its furthest historical and emotional resonance in Absalom, Absalom! (1936), evincing, as Phil writes, “Faulkner’s widest grasp of the racial nightmare coiled at the heart of American history.”
 
Each novel will be explored in three sessions. The first session, on April 7, is on chapter one (the Benjy chapter) of The Sound and the Fury; and session two, on April 14, is on chapter two (the Quentin chapter). The novel as a whole will be discussed in session three (April 21). The longer text of Light in August will be roughly divided into three sessions (April 28, May 5, 12). Discussion of the uniquely challenging—and rewarding—Absalom, Absalom! will take up the last three classes (May 19, 26, June 2).

Philip M. Weinstein is Alexander Griswold Cummins Professor of English Emeritus at Swarthmore College. His numerous publications include Faulkner’s Subject: A Cosmos No One Owns (1992), What Else But Love? The Ordeal of Race in Faulkner and Morrison (1996), and Becoming Faulkner (2009), and is currently working on a book of essays entitled Soul-Error. Professor Weinstein has been offering literary seminars in cooperation with the Vineyard Haven Public Library since 2012, and is the Honorary Co-Chair of the Capital Campaign for Vineyard Haven Library's expansion and renovation project.

Please register through the library's event calendar: https://bit.ly/30vaey9
Zoom login will be sent to all registered participants prior to the first session on April 7th

Online Event: The Life & Times of St. Patrick, with Historian Sean Murphy

 

Saturday March 13th at 3 pm
Online: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. PATRICK, WITH HISTORIAN SEAN MURPHY. 

Saint Patrick is the most famous person associated with Ireland. He is the Patron saint, and is recognized as having played a major role in the Christianization of Ireland. There are many myths and legends associated with Patrick. This talk will look at the historical record based on available facts and accepted understandings, and examine the historical context of his mission in Ireland. This includes a review of the development of Irish society prior to his arrival; an overview of the history of Christianity in England and Ireland; an examination of the crises in Europe as the Roman Empire collapsed and how this impacted the situation in Ireland in the fourth and fifth centuries. The talk will also reference the written works of Saint Patrick.

Sean Murphy was born and reared in Dublin and came to live on Cape Cod in 2005. He has a Bachelors degree and a Masters degree from Trinity College Dublin's department of Economic and Social Studies, and a BSC in Mathematics and Physics from London University. He has a passion for his homeland and loves to share his knowledge and interest about his heritage through classes, workshops and conversation.

This event is being sponsored by the Chilmark, West Tisbury and Vineyard Haven Public Libraries.

Email amcdonough@clamsnet.org to sign up and get the Zoom invite.