Tick Bite Prevention Program Video and Handouts

Vineyard Haven Library recently presented a Zoom presentation "Prevent the Bite" with Lea Hamner and Stephanie Barth, in collaboration with the Martha's Vineyard Tick Program. If you were not able to attend live or wish to watch the program again, here is the link to the video recording. 

You may also be interested in this showcase of previous programs on ticks and tick borne illnesses, hosted by the Vineyard Haven Public Library in collaboration with the Martha's Vineyard Tick Program.

Also available from the MV Tick Program, a pdf of the slideshow presentation, and handouts of "top tips," in both English and Portuguese. 

Katharine Cornell and the Vineyard, presented by Bow Van Riper

Promotional photograph of Katharine Cornell as
Countess Olenska in the Broadway production of
The Age of Innocence. Source: Wikimedia Common

The Vineyard Haven Library is pleased to welcome local historian Bow Van Riper for a presentation on Katharine Cornell and the Vineyard. This event will be held at 6:00 PM on Tuesday, September 23rd at the Katharine Cornell Theatre, located at 51 Spring Street in Vineyard Haven (above Tisbury Town Hall). Free and open to the public. No registration required.

Katharine Cornell's connection to the Island began as a child when she visited the Innisfail hotel at the headwaters of the Lagoon with her parents. Bow will present an overview of Cornell's life and career, focused primarily on her lifelong love of the Island, her contributions to it, and her part in the Island "celebrity culture" of the 1940s. 

“Katharine Cornell and the Vineyard” is the final in a three-part series of talks relating to the Katharine Cornell Theatre and presented by Bow Van Riper in 2025. On May 27th, Bow delivered a presentation entitled, “Association Hall and the History of Vineyard Haven,” and on July 22nd, he presented “History on Plaster: The Stan Murphy Murals.”  

A historian for 40 years, A. Bowdoin "Bow" Van Riper received his BA from Brown University and his MA and PhD from the University of Wisconsin—Madison. He taught at the college level for more than 20 years and is the author, editor, or co-editor of 22 books and over 100 articles. He has been Research Librarian at the Martha's Vineyard Museum since 2014.

A third-generation washashore, Bow first came to the Island in 1963, at the age of 3 months, and moved here permanently in December 2011. He lives on the shores of Vineyard Haven Harbor in a 19th century house where, as far as he can tell, nothing of historical significance ever happened.

For more information, please contact the library at (508) 696-4211 or vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org, or consult the library website: https://www.vhlibrary.org.

Author Talk–Cop Cop: Breaking the Fixed System of American Policing

The Vineyard Haven Library is pleased to welcome co-author and senior investigator Mac Muir for a conversation about his new book, “Cop Cop: Breaking the Fixed System of American Policing.” This event will be held at 6:00 PM on Tuesday, September 16th at the Katharine Cornell Theatre, located at 51 Spring Street in Vineyard Haven (above Tisbury Town Hall). Free and open to the public. No registration required.

In “Cop Cop,” former senior investigators at Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB), Mac Muir and Greg Finch, delve into the hidden gears that turn at the heart of American policing, distilling the complex web of police oversight into a far more accessible story. Across nearly a decade, Muir and Finch interviewed over 1,000 police officers and hundreds of victims of misconduct, and spoke with countless witnesses, policymakers, journalists, jailers, and gatekeepers of the criminal-justice system. The result is a web of real cases, spanning instances of chokeholds, stop-and-frisk, shootings, egregious verbal abuse, bodycam footage tampering, distortion of policing data, and much more.

Combining their unique perspectives as police misconduct investigators, the authors provide a new way of framing the history of policing, tethering a story that begins in the fields of Ireland and the plantations of Barbados, courses along the cobblestone paths of Charleston, South Carolina, and London, England, flows through the heart of New York City, and bleeds into the present day.

Mac Muir was raised in Oakland, California. From 2016 to 2022, he rose to become a Supervising Investigator at the New York City CCRB. From 2023 to 2025, Mac served as Executive Director of Oakland’s Community Police Review Agency.

For more information, please contact the library at vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org or (508) 696-4211.

Fauxlore: A Myth-Busting Romp through Colonial Vineyard History with Norah Van Riper

The Vineyard Haven Public Library is pleased to welcome back local historian Norah Van Riper for an interactive program about the history of Martha's Vineyard, entitled “Fauxlore: A Myth-Busting Romp through Colonial Vineyard History.” This event will be held at 6:00 PM on Tuesday, September 9th at the Katharine Cornell Theatre, located at 51 Spring Street in Vineyard Haven (above Tisbury Town Hall). Free and open to the public. No registration required.

We all know that “back then" everyone — especially Islanders — grew all their own food and made all their own clothes and never bought anything from anyone… Or did they? Play along as we tackle some of the most pervasive myths about pre industrial life on Martha's Vineyard and across New England in this highly interactive, very lighthearted myth-busting presentation. We’ll dissect everything from the houses they built to the clothes they wore, the food they ate, and the lives they actually lived, all while uncovering how the myths began and how they replaced the realities. Presented by Norah Van Riper. 

Itinerant historian Norah Van Riper has been in the museum and living history trades for the better part of twenty-five years. Her focus is primarily on historical agriculture and domestic life in New England before the Industrial Revolution, however, she’s known to dabble in a number of other subjects and periods. Her real passion lies in giving voice to the forgotten and misunderstood people of the past. She lives in Vineyard Haven.

For more information, please contact the library at (508) 696-4211 or send an email to vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org. 

Wintering and Migratory Habits of Martha's Vineyard Black Skimmers with BiodiversityWorks

The Vineyard Haven Library is pleased to welcome biologists Luanne Johnson and Liz Olson of BiodiversityWorks for a presentation on findings from the Martha's Vineyard Black Skimmer banding project. This event will be held at 6:00 PM on Tuesday, September 2nd at the Katharine Cornell Theatre, located at 51 Spring Street in Vineyard Haven (above Tisbury Town Hall). Free and open to the public. No registration required.

BiodiversityWorks has been collaborating with The Trustees, MassWildlife, and the Town of Edgartown to band black skimmer chicks with colored, field-readable bands that are unique to each bird. The project has banded 58 chicks since it began in 2017, and receives re-sights from birdwatchers and other biologists every fall and winter. In this presentation, they share the remarkable migratory movements, relationships, and winter hot spots revealed from reports of these banded birds. 

BiodiversityWorks director and founder Luanne Johnson is a wildlife biologist with a Ph.D. in Environmental Studies and Conservation Biology from Antioch University New England, a B.S. in Zoology from Butler University, and 30 years of experience as a conservation biologist. Assistant director Liz Olson is a wildlife biologist with an M.S. in Conservation Biology from Antioch University New England and a B.S. in Wildlife Management from the University of New Hampshire.

Founded in 2011, BiodiversityWorks is dedicated to promoting the conservation of biodiversity on Martha’s Vineyard through a combination of wildlife research and monitoring, while at the same time providing opportunities for people to engage in hands-on nature study. The organization researches and protects dozens of species, from endangered shorebirds to native snakes to the Northern Long Eared Bat.

For more information, please contact the library at vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org or (508) 696-4211.