The Light of Awareness: The Ancient Art of Zen Meditation and the 21st-Century Work of Byron Katie

The Vineyard Haven Public Library is pleased to welcome Jonathan Herrick, LCSW, for a two-hour meditation workshop combining two powerful, pragmatic approaches that can reduce personal suffering and increase the capacity for happiness and love. This program will be held on Saturday, June 27th, from 10:00am-12:00pm at the Katharine Cornell Theatre, located at 51 Spring Street in Vineyard Haven (above Tisbury Town Hall). Free and open to the public. Click here to register. 

The focus of the workshop is on the nature of awareness and on providing participants with practical skills that can benefit their lives. Herrick will introduce four primary Zen meditation practices, walk participants through Byron Katie’s four-step “CBT on steroids,” and demonstrate the similarities, differences, and strengths of each practice. Ample time is included for questions and answers.

Jonathan Herrick has been in private psychotherapy practice for over 40 years as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. After receiving his master’s degree from New York University, he trained extensively with some of the world’s foremost mentors and institutes, including a decade with Byron Katie, who asked him to write about her work's relationship to Zen Buddhism. Herrick also trained with leading Zen, Tibetan Buddhist, and Advaita Vedanta masters including Philip Kaplea, H.W.L. Poonja, Ramesh Balsekar, Jean Klein, and Anam Thubten. He has practiced and led workshops on the Psychology of Self in Westport, Park Slope, San Francisco, and now on Martha’s Vineyard.

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

Wutahkeemôwun: Best Practices for Working With Indigenous Content, Citizens and Communities

The Vineyard Haven Public Library is pleased to welcome Wôpanâak educator Brad Lopes for a workshop on best practices for approaching Indigenous content, working with Native communities, and building relationships with sovereign Tribal Nations. The workshop is designed for educators, but non-educators are also welcome to attend. Free and open to the public. No registration required. 

This program will be held at 6:00 PM on Tuesday, April 14th at the Tisbury EMS Facility, located at 215 Spring Street in Vineyard Haven. Attendees may park in the rear of the building and enter through the back entrance.

For many Native students and staff, school can be challenging. With roots in settler colonialism, schools today often fail to reflect the traditional pedagogies and methodologies Native people have employed for thousands of years. Join Aquinnah Wôpanâak educator Brad Lopes as he introduces an array of best practices for approaching Indigenous content, working with Native communities, and building relationships with sovereign Tribal Nations. Participants will learn about and discuss multiple pedagogies and methodologies grounded in Indigenous practices and traditions. Exploring epistemologies thousands of years old, this workshop aims to prepare participants to best support Wampanoag and other Native students, staff, and community members.

Brad Lopes is an Aquinnah Wampanoag citizen and life-long educator currently working within the traditional homelands of his people, the Wampanoag Nation. He currently serves as the Education Manager for the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribal Education Department (TED) and as the Education and Public Programs Manager for the Aquinnah Cultural Center, an Aquinnah Wampanoag museum located on Nôepe (Martha's Vineyard). Prior to this, Brad went to the University of Maine Farmington, located in Wabanaki Homelands, and graduated with a degree in Secondary Education before spending five years teaching Social Studies to students in 7 - 12 grade. In his time in education, Brad has sought to decolonize the pedagogies, content, and ways of understanding education, including the ways in which public education can reinforce stereotypes and harmful understandings of Indigenous people.

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

Virtual: Creative and Personal Writing Series with Caroline Joy Adams

Participants may register by sending an email to vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org. For more information, please contact the library at (508) 696-4211. 

The Vineyard Haven Public Library is excited to offer a virtual series of personal and creative writing workshops with writing instructor Caroline Joy Adams. The workshops will be held via Zoom on the second Wednesday of each month from 2:00-3:30 pm, February through June. Topics include: Writing about Love, the Return of Spring, Haiku, Writing about Nature, and Travel Writing. 

Writers of all experience levels, backgrounds, and interests (including fiction and memoir writers, as well as poets) are invited to attend this Zoom-based series, where we will explore various topics and creative writing pathways, and create a supportive writing community together. Writing may take the form of memoir, poetry, fiction, essays, or creative non-fiction; all forms are worthy of exploration. Participants may attend all five sessions, or only one or two. 

Caroline Joy Adams, M.Ed., has been leading workshops for the Vineyard Haven Public Library since 2019. She is the author of seven published books and two new titles to be released this spring, including Great Travel Questions for Fun Conversations. Dividing her time between the sunny Southwest and coastal New England, she has taught college-level writing and led hundreds of art and writing workshops in diverse locations across the country.

Caroline creates a relaxed, inclusive, and comfortable atmosphere in all of her classes, whether held over Zoom or in person. Her goal is to inspire everyone to ignite their creative writing energies and get their words flowing, whether they are just beginning or have been writing for many years.

Workshop dates and topics are as follows:

February 12, 2025, 2:00-3:30 pm via Zoom – Writing About Love 

Valentine's Day is the perfect time to focus our creative energies on writing short love poems, love letters, tiny love stories, and more, perhaps in time to gift these well-crafted words to a loved one for this upcoming love-focused holiday. 

March 12, 2025, 2:00-3:30 pm via Zoom – The Return of Spring 

As winter wanes, and spring approaches, it is an excellent time to reflect on our lives and write about times when hope returned, and we were once again able to see the light of dawn, as we opened to a new life chapter.

April 9, 2025, 2:00-3:30 pm via Zoom – Have Fun with Haiku 

In honor of National Poetry Month, this workshop will explore the Japanese tradition of writing short bits of memoir in the form of Haibun and Haiku poetry, something everyone can learn and produce excellent results from within a very short time.

May 14, 2025, 2:00-3:30 pm via Zoom – Writing About Nature 

Wherever we live—by the sea, in the mountains, or even in a big city—nature, in all its many aspects, has a powerful impact on our lives and unfolding life stories. This workshop offers a chance to contemplate. and then write about and share some of our most memorable, beautiful, dramatic, or surprising nature-focused experiences. 

June 11, 2025, 2:00-3:30 pm via Zoom – Great Travels 

For those who love to travel, this fun, inspiring workshop offers a chance to contemplate, discuss, write about, and share some of our most memorable travel experiences and adventures—either those from recent times or from the long-ago past.

Participants may register by sending an email to vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org. For more information, please contact the library at (508) 696-4211. 

Virtual: Memoir 101 Workshop with Moira Silva

Isn't it time you told your story? Starting March 23rd, Vineyard Haven Library will host a four-week online memoir workshop series with Moira Silva on Wednesdays from 10:30am-12pm via Zoom. Through a blend of exercises, readings, and discussions, writers will connect with their writing and themselves. Participants will form a supportive community while sharing in-process work, with the group honoring whatever is created — whether it is an essay, song, letter, or entirely new genres. Writers will leave the course lighter in spirit and richer in purpose.

Moira Convey Silva is a writing instructor, writing consultant, yoga teacher, community activist, and award-winning writer who, for over 10 years, has freelanced for national and local periodicals. Focusing on features and essays, especially ones that relate to sustainability, Silva’s writing most notably appears in the Boston Globe, Women’s Running and Taproot. Silva is a co-creative producer of Covid Monologues MV: A Project to Nourish, Inspire & Connect.

Space is limited, to sign up contact library Program Coordinator Anne McDonough at amcdonough@clamsnet.org. Participants are asked to commit to all four sessions.