Brooks Memorial Library - Brattleboro VT

The Osaka Adventures of Phillip and Lenny: a Reading with Daniel Guerra
2022-05-11 19:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Author Daniel Guerra will be reading selections from The Osaka Adventures of Phillip and Lenny. Two free-spirited feline friends steal a credit card so they can have an adventure in Osaka, Japan. The story, based on two real cats who live in Vermont and Italy, is illustrated by Sofie Engstrom von Alten. Copies will be available for purchase.

Scrabble
2022-05-18 18:00 - 20:00, 2022-05-25 18:00 - 20:00, 2022-06-01 18:00 - 20:00, 2022-06-08 18:00 - 20:00, 2022-06-15 18:00 - 20:00, 2022-06-22 18:00 - 20:00, 2022-06-29 18:00 - 20:00 | 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Scrabble is back! Join the fun on Wednesday evenings, 6-8pm in the Quiet Reading Room on the mezzanine.

New Yorker Discussion Group
2022-05-18 19:00 - 20:00, 2022-06-15 19:00 - 20:00 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Do you read The New Yorker magazine regularly? Would you like to discuss recent articles with fellow readers? The New Yorker discussion group gathers on the third Wednesday of each month at 7pm in the Community Meeting Room on the second floor. Similar to a book group, participants bring their favorite articles in the magazine every month for comments and discussion.
The program is free, open to the public and accessible to people in wheelchairs. Because it will be held indoors, all attendees are required to wear masks by order of the Town. For more information call (802) 254-5290.

New Yorker Discussion Group
2022-05-18 19:00 - 20:00, 2022-06-15 19:00 - 20:00 | Brooks Memorial Library, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Do you read The New Yorker magazine regularly? Would you like to discuss recent articles with fellow readers? The New Yorker discussion group gathers on the third Wednesday of each month at 7pm in the Community Meeting Room on the second floor. Similar to a book group, participants bring their favorite articles in the magazine every month for comments and discussion.
The program is free, open to the public and accessible to people in wheelchairs.
Call the Library at 254-5290 for more information.

Citizen Police Communications Committee
2022-05-23 17:30 - 18:00, 2022-06-27 17:30 - 18:00 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Monthly CPCC town meeting

In-Person Presentation by Rare Book Specialist Ken Gloss--registration required
2022-05-24 18:30 | Main Reading Room
Kenneth Gloss, proprietor of the internationally known Brattle Book Shop in Boston, will give an in-person presentation to discuss the value of old and rare books.
Ken, a rare book specialist and appraiser who is frequently seen on national TV, will talk in part about the history of his historic bookshop (www.brattlebookshop.com/about), which goes back to circa 1825. He is a second-generation owner. Ken will discuss growing up in the book business, show some of his favorite finds while enjoying “the thrill of the hunt,” and explain how he appraises books and manuscripts. He has many fascinating anecdotes to share about private and institutional collecting as well as guidelines for building and maintaining a significant collection. There is also a Q&A session at the conclusion of his talk. Following the talk and question-and-answer session, Ken will give free verbal appraisals of books participants have on hand or will do so at his shop in Boston at a later scheduled date.
Please register in advance here or in person at the library.
Yankee Magazine Editor’s Choice Award for Best of New England, the Brattle Book Shop is one of America’s oldest and largest antiquarian bookstores. 2022 is the 73rd year of Gloss family ownership. Kenneth Gloss succeeded his late father, George Gloss, a well-known figure both in Boston and national antiquarian circles. He had worked in the store since childhood and became the sole proprietor upon his father’s death in 1985. “I found that books were in my blood and that I would never be really happy if I abandoned the business.” To hear about some of Ken’s more fun and unique finds, listen to Brattlecast, his new podcast: http://www.brattlebookshop.com/brattlecast (also available on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/brattlecast/id1295728623?mt=2).

Tool Cottage Grand Opening Garden Party
2022-06-04 10:00 - 12:00 | Brooks Memorial Library, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Brooks Memorial Library unveils its new collection of gardening and food preparation and preservation tools available for loan to cardholders.
Located behind the library in the municipal parking lot.

Opening day events
· 10 am—Ribbon cutting
· 10-noon—Tours of the tool inventory and an introduction to the reservation system, chalk flower garden mural project, demonstration of papermaking with embedded seeds, seed bookmark decoration activity (while supplies last).
· 10-11—Garden songs with Andy Davis on accordion
· 11-12—Sing and Dance with Robin Morgan
Families can follow a story walk featuring Lola Plants a Garden and Lola Loves Stories, by Anna McQuinn between Brooks Memorial Library and the Edible Brattleboro plant giveaway event occurring simultaneously at the Retreat Farm.

Made possible by a grant from the Vermont Foodbank

In-person author reading with Pearl Whitfield
2022-06-06 19:00 | 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Visiting author, Pearl Whitfield shares selections from her new book Apsara, the story of a young girl in a remote village in 12th century Cambodia, who loves to dance and is chosen to train as an Apsara (court dancer) for King Jayavarman VII. Apsaras dance to bring heaven to earth, blessing the land with prosperity. Bopha walks from her home to Angkor Wat, and begins a life she could never have imagined.
Apsara is Whitfield’s second novel. Her first, The Storekeeper, A Tale of Small Town Life, is a story about a man whose wife dies and he moves to a small town in the inter-mountain west of modern day USA. Ralph buys the mom-and-pop store, enters into community life, and starts to heal from his grief.
Books will be available for sale and signing at the event.

Mineralogical Society of Brattleboro
2022-06-07 18:00 - 19:45 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Study of Rocks & Minerals

Difficult Decisions with authors Susan Mills and Barbara Morrison
2022-06-08 19:00 | 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Local authors Susan Mills and Barbara Morrison read from their books and discuss incorporating social justice issues in fiction and memoir.
Susan Mills’ new novel, On the Wings of a Hummingbird, follows a 15-year-old Guatemalan girl who draws on Mayan mythology to help her carve a future out of a childhood scarred by gang violence. Susan was a Spanish-speaking immigration attorney for twenty years and prepared asylum cases for thousands of immigrants from Central America.
Barbara Morrison, who writes as B. Morrison, is the author of a memoir, Innocent: Confessions of a Welfare Mother—now an audiobook—and two poetry collections, Terrarium and Here at Least. She conducts writing workshops and provides editing services.

Enjoying James Joyce’s Ulysses, An After-hours Bloomsday Celebration
2022-06-16 19:00 - 20:30 | Brooks Memorial Library, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Special after-hours event to celebrate James Joyce’s Ulysses at Brooks Memorial Library
On June 16 people around the world celebrate the day in 1904 when Leopold and Molly Bloom, Stephen Dedalus and a host of other Dubliners from all walks of life experienced the full range of human events and emotions in James Joyce’s novel Ulysses, in a single turn around the sun. The public is invited to join in a special Bloomsday celebration after regular library hours:
June 16th at 7 pm

in the Main Reading Room of Brooks Memorial Library, 224 Main St, in Brattleboro.
and via Zoom at:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88544347541?pwd=[REDACTED] Meeting ID: 885 4434 7541
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Jon Mack will celebrate the novel by following the threads of the stories in this groundbreaking work through readings and explorations of excerpts from the extraordinary text.
“I’ve been fascinated with James Joyce’s Ulysses for many years, so I’m excited to be hosting a Bloomsday event at the library. Joyce’s novel is a many splendored jewel that has astonished readers ever since it was first published 100 years ago, yet many readers find it all but incomprehensible. The aim of my presentation is to made the work more approachable and understandable by providing some connective tissue with readings of selected excerpts from the novel”, says Mack. “Joyce’s work is a celebration of the written word in all its complexity. Ultimately, it is a human tale, full of both comedy and drama of life. I’m excited to be giving the presentation in our public library for Bloomsday 2022. Nowhere could be a more appropriate venue than a public library. James Joyce’s epic work emerged from being banned for being too literal, too real than the duly appointed censors of the US of that time would allow.”
After the readings, there will be recommendations on how to find the best resources to make your reading enjoyable and we will open up conversation to those participating in-person or online.
The program is free and open to the public. As Joyce writes in Ulysses, “Every life is in many days, day after day. We walk through ourselves, meeting robbers, ghosts, giants, old men, young men, wives, widows, brothers-in-love, but always meeting ourselves.” Do drop by, you never know who might show up.
For more information, call 802.254.5290 ex. 1201 or visit www.brookslibraryvt.org.
Sketch of Leopold Bloom by James Joyce

Windham County Genealogy Interest Group Meeting
2022-06-18 11:00 - 13:00 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
LIVE AND IN PERSON SATURDAY, JUNE 18, AT 11 A.M, EDT
TOPICS: Searching Chronicling America Newspapers for Ancestors & Navigating NARA, the National Archives and Records Administration
The June meeting of the Windham County Genealogy Interest Group will be held as a hybrid meeting: in person at the Brooks Library Meeting Room, 2nd Floor, in Brattleboro and via Zoom on Saturday, June 18, at 11 AM, EDT. It is free and open to the public.
Register for the meeting at https://bit.ly/WindhamGenJun . Attendees in person are encouraged to wear masks.
Searching historical newspapers: The Library of Congress along with the National Endowment for the Humanities has a website called Chronicling America that contains historic American newspapers. Part of the website includes a U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690 to the present. Not all of these newspapers are online but the directory can provide information about where they are located. The website also includes the Digitized Newspaper collection which includes a wide variety of newspapers published between 1777 and 1963. This free website is searchable by name and date, and includes ways to narrow the search by State, by Ethnicity, and by Language. It is also possible to choose a specific newspaper and do a search in just that newspaper. We’ll explore ways to use this valuable resource to find information about ancestors.
The United States National Archives and Records Administration, aka NARA, was established by an act of Congress in 1934 to preserve, maintain, and make accessible materials that record American history. The collections go back to 1775 and were created by or for the U.S. Government. The holdings usually consulted by genealogists include Census records, Military Service records, Military Pension files, and other important records to trace family histories. The NARA website is complex and can be intimidating to use. During this session we will present an overview of the extent of NARA’s collections, which will hopefully give us a better understanding of using its web site and databases.
The Windham County (Vt.) Genealogy Interest Group is an informal organization whose members are dedicated to genealogy education, research, and best practices. Meetings are held every other month on Zoom. Many of these sessions were recorded and are available on the WCGIG YouTube Channel, which cover topics as: improving your search results in FamilySearch.org and Ancestry.com; using family tree software; navigating the crowd sources cemetery database, Find A Grave; using land records for genealogy research; using AmericanAncestors.org, the database of the New England Historic Genealogical Society; finding people in the newly released 1950 U.S. Census,
For more information please contact windhamcountygig@gmail.com.
Wayne and Jerry
Wayne Blanchard & Jerry Carbone
Windham County Genealogy Interest Group
windhamcountygig@gmail.com

Harpist Rachel Clemente
2022-06-21 19:00 - 20:00 | Main Reading Room
Celebrate the longest day of the year and Make Music Vermont during an interlude with New England based pedal and traditional Scottish harpist, Rachel Clemente.

Outdoor Movie Night: "But I'm a Cheerleader"
2022-06-24 20:00 - 22:00 | Parking Lot, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Join us in the library parking lot for a Teens Only outdoor movie night to kick off Summer Reading Program. Bring your own seating!
In honor of Pride Month, we will watch “But I’m a Cheerleader”. “But I’m a Cheerleader” is a campy, funny, queer-positive cult classic about a high school cheerleader whose parents send her to gay conversion therapy where she bonds with other gay teens. The movie will start at 8pm and has a 1 hour and 25 minute run time.
RATING INFORMATION:
“But I’m a Cheerleader” is a Rated R movie. Teen Movie Nights are typically Rated PG-13, however “But I’m a Cheerleader” was made in the 90’s when cultural homophobia demanded an R rating for queer-centric stories. There is some swearing in this movie, but only enough to receive a PG-13 rating if it were made today.
Please check out Common Sense Media for more content details from both children and adults: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/but-im-a-cheerleader

Hosted by the Teen Advisory Board.
“Teens Only” events are open to people in grades 7-12.

Brattleboro Stamp Club
2022-06-27 18:00 - 20:00 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States

Sing & Dance with Robin
2022-06-28 10:30 - 11:30 | Brattleboro Commons, Park Pl, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
For Ages 0-5 and their caregivers, held on the Brattleboro Commons.
This lovely class is an enriching musical experience for toddlers and preschoolers, designed to support healthy cognitive, physical, and social development. Children will sing, clap, stomp, dance, and play along with the curriculum of traditional and modern folk songs. Parents will be encouraged to fully sing and participate with their child in the class.

Read to a Dog
2022-06-30 13:30 - 16:30 | Children’s Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Come read out loud to Kelso the Dog (and his human, Everett). Kelso is specially trained to read with kids and LOVES to be petted and cuddled– give him a treat when you’re done, and you’ll have a buddy for life.
Come to the Children’s Room for a date with Kelso – dates experienced on a first come first serve basis. Bring your own books or come early to pick some of ours! All Ages Welcome.

Hip-Hop and Islam: Amirah Sackett and Ahmed Zaghbouni
2022-06-30 19:00 - 20:30 | Brooks Memorial Library, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Curious about Hip Hop?
Curious about the Muslim religion?
Learn more about both!
Conversation and Q&A with Amirah Sackett & Ahmed Zaghbouni
Brooks Memorial Library
in-person and after hours, 7:00 pm, Thursday, June 30th
Amirah is a hip-hop dancer, choreographer, and educator based in Chicago. Her signature style is the funk style dance known as ‘popping’. As a proud Muslim American, she combines Islamic themes with her dance to share the universal beauty of her faith with audiences of different faith backgrounds to promote unity and understanding. Ahmed is an international beatboxer and filmmaker from Sousse, Tunisia. He entertains the audience with the sounds he creates only using his mouth and voice as an instrument. He is proud of his Muslim heritage and the Sufi faith traditions native to his home of Tunisia. These two Muslim artists bonded by faith and their love of hip-hop, offer a counter narrative to the media’s portrayal of Muslims.
In-person and after hours. Free to all. Venue is accessible to people in wheelchairs. In partnership with Next Stage Arts, which will present Amirah and Ahmed in BeatBox MEETS Popping on July 2 at New England School for Circus Arts.

"Summer of Soul"
2022-07-01 20:00 - 22:00 | Brattleboro Commons, Park Pl, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Join us OUTSIDE on the Brattleboro Commons to watch “Summer of Soul”. Rated PG-13, run time 1 hr 58 minutes. All ages welcome!
The Harlem Cultural Festival was filmed in Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park). “Summer of Soul” is part music film, part historical record created around an epic event that celebrated Black history, culture, and fashion.
Presented by WSESU Office of Diversity, Equity, & Social Justice and the Brooks Memorial Library.

Game Cafe!
2022-07-02 14:00 - 16:45 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
Come join game enthusiasts in playing Magic the Gathering in various formats (including Commander/EDH) as well as other fun and creative board & card games.
Bring your favorite games- All Ages Welcome!

INSIDE TODAY! Sing & Dance with Robin
2022-07-05 10:30 - 11:30 | Meeting Room A – Community Meeting Room, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301, United States
AT THE LIBRARY TODAY (Due to Rain)!!
For Ages 0-5 and their caregivers, held on the Brattleboro Commons.
This lovely class is an enriching musical experience for toddlers and preschoolers, designed to support healthy cognitive, physical, and social development. Children will sing, clap, stomp, dance, and play along with the curriculum of traditional and modern folk songs. Parents will be encouraged to fully sing and participate with their child in the class.
