Thanksgiving Holiday Hours at Martha's Vineyard Libraries

Vineyard Haven library holiday hours:

Closing early at 1pm on Wednesday November 26th
CLOSED Thursday November 27th & Friday November 28th
OPEN Regular hours Saturday & Sunday 

Join us for Storytime @Grace Church at 10:15am Monday 11/24 & Tuesday 11/25

Free Tickets For Interactive Polar Express at the MV Film Center!

 Free Tickets For Polar Express @ Film Center!

One showing only, 11 am Sunday December 7th  



Free Tickets will be Available Starting November 15! 

Come kick off the holiday season with a free interactive showing! Viewers will get prompts and props to interact with the film! Free tickets available through the Film Center Website while supplies last,  limit 4 per family. Sponsored by the Friends of Vineyard Haven Library and the MV Film Society.

NOAA Fisheries in the Northeast: What's Happening in the Waters Around MV

The Vineyard Haven Public Library is pleased to welcome Nicole Cabana, Deputy Director of NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) for a presentation on what's happening in the waters around our island. This event will be held at 6:00 PM on Tuesday, December 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.

NOAA is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a federal agency. NOAA Fisheries is responsible for providing the scientific information and tools necessary for productive, sustainable, and healthy marine ecosystems and coastal communities in our region. Some of the high profile topics in this region include protection of critically endangered North Atlantic right whales and offshore wind development. These and other topics will be discussed.

Nicole Cabana is Deputy Director of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) in Woods Hole. She has been at the NEFSC since 2018, when she reported as a NOAA Corps Officer in the Chief of Staff role. In 2020 she retired from the NOAA Corps and stepped into a civilian role as the NEFSC Deputy Director. She has an undergraduate degree in Marine Biology, a Masters degree in Engineering, and certificates in Geographic Information Systems and Project Management. She is also a dual rated pilot, certified to fly both fixed and rotary wing aircraft and seaplanes. 

During her 20 years of service in the NOAA Corps, Nicole served in a broad range of operational, staff, and leadership positions. She operated NOAA Ships in both the Atlantic and the Pacific, served as a divemaster, and flew NOAA aircraft on a variety of scientific missions spanning from the equator to the arctic. As Deputy Director she oversees the Center’s five labs, 400+ staff, and scientific research to support productive, sustainable, and healthy marine ecosystems and coastal communities in our region.  

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

“A Musical Explosion!” featuring Allie & Paryss

The Vineyard Haven Public Library is pleased to welcome musical duo Allie & Paryss for “A Musical Explosion” of Rockin’ Soul and Jazz. This performance will be held at 6:00 PM on Tuesday, November 18th 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.

Allie & Paryss are a dynamic and versatile husband-and-wife musical duo that bring a captivating blend of soul, passion, and musicianship to every performance. Allie’s powerhouse vocals deliver deep, soulful melodies, while Paryss masterfully showcases his skills on lead and acoustic guitar, creating an unforgettable musical experience.

Trained by top professionals, Allie & Paryss have performed at venues across the United States, sharing the stage with award-winning artists. From the charm of local venues on the island of Martha’s Vineyard to grand stages nationwide, the duo seamlessly adapt their sound to any setting. With their deep musical connection and professional expertise, Allie & Paryss transform every event into a soulful, engaging, and memorable celebration of music.

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

Two Special Family Events this Month: Pitter Patter Puppets, and the Poop Museum!

 Special Event! The Poop Museum, Friday, October 24th at 3:30 pm

Grace Church, 34 Woodlawn Avenue 
The Poop Museum is coming! Join us for a very special experience with international presenter Susie Maguire, founder of the Poop Museum. Learn lots of fun and fabulous facts about poop, and even taste poop honey! Kids say, "I give this 5000 stars out of 5!" Parents say, "This was pooopmazing! My preschooler and first grader both loved it!" Sponsored by Friends of the Vineyard Haven and Oak Bluffs Libraries.




Special Event! Puppet Variety Show, Monday, October 27th at 10:15 am
Grace Church, 34 Woodlawn Avenue 
Join us for a special interactive puppet show with Mary Wilson from Pitter Patter Puppets! Enjoy songs, silly stories, and audience participation, enjoyable for all ages!

Programs are subject to change, please check our online calendar and Facebook page for updates. 

Thank you to the Friends of the Library for sponsoring our Children's programs!

Fall Schedule Changes, Including Sunday Hours

Sunday, October 19th will be the first Sunday of the season that the library will be open. The library will be open from 1pm-5pm most Sundays throughout the winter.

The Church Street library building will close early at 4pm on Friday October 31st. Stop by after the Parade on Mainstreet for Trick-or-Treating on the front porch from 4:30 to 6:30pm!

The library will be closed for Veterans Day on Tuesday November 11th. For Thanksgiving, the library will close early at 1pm on Wednesday November 26th, and remain closed on Thursday November 27th and Friday November 28th. The library will be open regular hours on Saturday and Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend.

Author Talk: “Time’s Bounty: Rethinking Aging,” by Philip Weinstein

The Vineyard Haven Library is pleased to celebrate the release of Professor Philip Weinstein’s new book of essays, “Time’s Bounty: Rethinking Aging,” with a reading and reception at 5:00 pm on Thursday, November 13th. This event will be held at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center, located at 130 Center Street in Vineyard Haven. Refreshments will be provided by the Friends of the Library, and books available for onsite purchase through Bunch of Grapes Bookstore. Free and open to the public. No registration required. 

Our culture isn’t kind towards age. The dominant drive is to celebrate youth, striving for more and more of everything, while age, we’re told, brings only depletion and loss. Even as Americans live longer, most consider old age with dread. It’s time to challenge these assumptions. “Time’s Bounty” is a bracing view of the surprises that lie ahead, as age enkindles in us new expressions of life. 

“Old-age situations, assumed to announce the end-of-the-road, actually generate fresh life-moves,” writes author Philip Weinstein. “As we age, we tend to become ‘lighter’ in more senses than one....Indeed, we may find ourselves catapulted into late-stage ‘adventures’ the young never dream of.”

“Time’s Bounty” offers a view of age that differs greatly from our preconceptions—surprising, emancipating, sometimes even joyful. In five brief chapters, the author takes us from the generative discoveries that age occasions to the freedom that comes in life’s late chapters, when no company or institution or cause any longer owns us. At last, we are our own, in ways we could not imagine when younger.

Weinstein, a retired professor of English, draws not only on his own insights but on the insights found in writers he taught for decades: Shakespeare, Yeats, Proust, Faulkner, Eliot, Beckett, and others. Brief forays into their imaginative works add further illumination to the author’s own discoveries regarding the dramas—both the trials and the gifts—of old age.

Philip Weinstein earned his PhD in English from Harvard University, staying on to teach at Harvard for the next 3 years. He then accepted a position at Swarthmore, where he remained for over 40 years, becoming Alexander Griswold Cummins Professor of English. He has written several books of literary criticism, many focused on Faulkner, including “Becoming Faulkner: The Art and Life of William Faulkner,” which won the Hugh Holman Award for the best book of literary scholarship or literary criticism in the field of southern literature published in 2010. In 2015, Weinstein retired from Swarthmore and moved to Martha’s Vineyard full-time. Since then, he’s gone on to write three more books and to continue teaching adults through the Vineyard Haven Library, Swarthmore Lifelong Learning, and the 92nd Street Y in New York.

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