April Events at the Library

April is National Poetry Month.
Come in and read our Poem of the Week or compose your own poem with our magnetic poetry kit on the front desk!

MP3 Players Available at the Library!
The library now has an MP3 player to loan for a week at a time. You must provide your own earbuds (we have a limited supply for sale for $5.00). We've also opened up one of our public computers so that patrons can now download free audio books onto an MP3 player. Since many of you have dial-up connections, we thought you might want to take advantage of our high speed connection. Please call ahead (525-4411) to make a reservation if you'd like to use the computer for downloading audio books.


Thursdays, beginning April 3rd, 2:00 - 4:00 pm
A Passion for Poetry with Nila Gandhi-Schwatlo

Bring your passion for poetry - or your newly emerging appreciation for poetry - to these programs on Thursday afternoons. For the first class you should bring a favorite poem to read aloud - one page only please. All are welcome - drop in any week you're available. For more information, call us at 525-4411. "If there were no poetry on any day in the world, poetry would be invented that day. For there would be an intolerable hunger." --Muriel Rukeyser

Mondays for 7 weeks,
Beginning April 14th from 4:00 - 6:00 pm
Creative Writing Workshop with Becky Sakellariou

This is a workshop for anyone who wants to play with their imagination through writing. We will do different kinds of writing exercises every week, stimulating, fun, outrageous, and there will be time for us to read things we've written to each other. We will create an environment amongst us of trust and ease, and there will be no requirements to "produce" or "achieve." We will always be surprised and pleased by what we do. If we want, we can each choose one piece to fine tune toward the end of the workshop and put the pieces together in a little booklet.....we might even do a reading! Becky Sakellariou has written since she was a child. Much of her professional life also included writing -- editing journals, writing non-fiction articles for professional journals, teaching writing and publishing her own essays and poetry. Registration is required and the cost is $110 for 7 weeks. For more information or to register (by April 4th), please call the library at 525-4411.

Friday April 11 at 7:00 pm
Storyteller Carol Carlisle

Children of all ages are invited to join storyteller Carol Carlisle as she entrances you with her Native American-style legends and stories. In honor of National Poetry Month, we'll hear some poems, too! Carol Carlisle is a retired Montessori teacher from Stoddard. Refreshments.

Thursday April 17th at 7:00 pm
Middle Eastern Poetry with Ruth Siegel and James Smart

Palestinian and Israeli poetry is a beloved ancient tradition. Ruth Siegel and James Smart will read some of their favorite modern Palestinian and Israeli poems. They have selected poems that cover a wide range of topics and viewpoints. Ruth Siegel was Professor of Literature at Queens College in New York, and James Smart was Professor of History at Keene State College.

Friday April 18th at 7:00 pm
Third Friday Film: Campfire

The year is 1981. Rachel Gerlik, a 42 year-old widowed mother of two beautiful teenage daughters, wants to join the founding group of a new religious settlement in the West Bank. The problem is that the settlement's acceptance committee won't approve her unless she remarries and demonstrates that she and her daughters can meet the group's religious and ideological standards. When Tami, her youngest daughter, is accused of seducing some boys from her youth movement, Rachel is forced to weigh her allegiances. Only Yossi, a 50 year-old bachelor and the new man in Rachel's life, can show Rachel that living as an outcast is not as bad as it seems. Winner - Five Israeli Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Director and Screenplay. Winner - FIPRESCI Prize - Chicago International Film Festival. Winner - Don Quixote Awards - Berlin Film Festival. In Hebrew with English subtitles. Free admission and free popcorn thanks to Friends of the Library.

Coming in May...

Saturday May 3 at 7 p.m. at the Harris Center
David Henry/Henry David: An Evening with Mr. Thoreau.

Following up on their successes with the Flower Power Hour, Birdfest, poems of Dwelling, and Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself, Walter Clark, Jane Eklund, Howard Mansfield, Sy Montgomery, Julia Older and Steve Schuch will read from the works of Thoreau and from writers he has inspired or incensed. The readings will be accompanied by Steve Schuch, of the acclaimed Night Heron Consort, on violin and guitar. Co-sponsored by the Hancock Library & The Harris Center in memory of Thelma Babbitt.

Tuesday May 6th at 7:00 pm
First Tuesday Book Club

This month's book is West with the Night by Beryl Markham, the story of Markham's childhood in Africa and her life as a pilot (she was the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west). Ernest Hemingway had this to say about West with the Night, "As it is she has written so well, and marvelously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer. I felt that I was simply a carpenter with words, picking up whatever was furnished on the job and nailing them together and sometimes making an okay pigpen. But she can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves as writers." Join us!