Library News

Jacob Edwards Library

September 2024

Library Hours

Monday & Thursday 9 am - 8 pm

Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday 9 am - 5 pm

Saturday 9am - 1 pm

Curbside pickup is available during library hours!

Please note: the Library will be CLOSED on

Monday, September 2nd in observance of Labor Day.

Introducing Stay Sharp kits from Penworthy!

Stay Sharp kits are designed to improve memory and cognition, while building social skills. They encourage creative thinking and have a positive effect on cognition by stimulating the mind and memory. Kit activities also reinforce the connection between brain cells and improve mental speed and short term memory. The Jacob Edwards Library currently has four kits available for checkout: Cats, Great Outdoors, Senior Game Night, and Birds & Butterflies.

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with hoopla!

Immerse yourself in the traditions, beauty, and vibrancy of Hispanic culture through a variety of literature and music with this hoopla collection.

Start streaming here!

The BPL eCard is a Boston Public Library card that you can sign up for online, and which provides access to all online resources.

BPL eCards are available to anyone who lives, resides part-time to attend school, owns property, or works in Massachusetts.

Mindfulness Meditation with Iris

Saturdays, September 7th & 21st

9:15 - 10:15 am

The Jacob Edwards Library is pleased to host Iris Vega, certified Mindfulness Meditation teacher and mentor, to present a series of sessions.

Inviting Mindfulness Meditation into your daily routine is an opportunity to cultivate awareness and presence.

You may bring your Yoga mat if you prefer doing the practice lying down.

Sponsored by Friends of Jacob Edwards Library.

September Art Exhibit

Maria Payano

Meet & Greet

Thursday, September 5th

6:30 - 7:30 pm

The Jacob Edwards Library is pleased to host an exhibit by Maria Payano to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. The show will be on display throughout the month, in the main hall.

From the artist:



"I am an illustrator/artist. I am originally from New York, of Dominican decent and I take pride in celebrating and honoring my Afro-Latina heritage. Growing up between N.Y and D.R, I was blessed to be surrounded by vibrant colors, blends of music, and amazing sazón, which has inspired my style of art work. With each piece I create, I hope to make this world a little bit brighter."

Sponsored by Friends of Jacob Edwards Library.

Two Poets in Southbridge

Thursday, September 12th

6:30 - 7:30 pm

The Jacob Edwards Library is pleased to host "Two Poets in Southbridge", a reading by Bill O'Connell and Stephen Campiglio.

Bill O’Connell is the author of When We Were All Still Alive (Open Field, 2021); Sakonnet Point (Plinth Books, 2011), and On The Map To Your Life (Dytiscid Press, 1992), plus poems in anthologies and literary magazines, such as The Sun, Poetry East, Colorado Review, Green Mountains Review, and others. He lives in Amherst, MA with his wife, Robin Marion.

Stephen Campiglio recently co-edited, with AJ Juarez and Julie Murkette, Noh Place Poetry Anthology (Lost Valley Press, 2022). His poems and Italian translations have appeared of late in Aji, DASH, Gradiva, Hole in the Head Review, Italian Americana, Journal of Italian Translation, The Octotillo Review, SLAB, and SurVision. He is presently translating, with Elena Borelli, Giovanni Pascoli’s (1855-1912) volume of poetry, Canti di Castelvecchio.

Graphic: Emulating Jean by A J Juarez.

Sponsored by Friends of the Jacob Edwards Library.

In September, the group will discuss Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck

From the publisher:

"In September 1960, John Steinbeck embarked on a journey across America. He felt that he might have lost touch with the country, with its speech, the smell of its grass and trees, its color and quality of light, the pulse of its people. To reassure himself, he set out on a voyage of rediscovery of the American identity, accompanied by a distinguished French poodle named Charley; and riding in a three-quarter-ton pickup truck named Rocinante.

His course took him through almost forty states: northward from Long Island to Maine; through the Midwest to Chicago; onward by way of Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana (with which he fell in love), and Idaho to Seattle, south to San Francisco and his birthplace, Salinas; eastward through the Mojave, New Mexico, Arizona, to the vast hospitality of Texas, to New Orleans and a shocking drama of desegregation; finally, on the last leg, through Alabama, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey to New York. 

Travels with Charley: In Search of America is an intimate look at one of America's most beloved writers in the later years of his life - a self-portrait of a man who never wrote an explicit autobiography. Written during a time of upheaval and racial tension in the South - which Steinbeck witnessed firsthand - Travels with Charley is a stunning evocation of America on the eve of a tumultuous decade."

Carlos Odria Trio

Thursday, September 19th

6:30 - 7:30 pm

The Jacob Edwards Library is pleased to host a concert with the Carlos Odria Trio in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month.

The Carlos Odria Trio is a high-energy fusion band that performs original compositions and arrangements of jazz standards and Latin American popular music. The group is comprised of Tom Lubelczyk (bass), Carlos Odria (guitar) and Thomas Spears (drums). 

Sponsored by the Southbridge Cultural Council. The Southbridge Cultural Council is a local agency funded by Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.

Tech Training: Libby/hoopla

Tuesday, September 24th

2:00 - 3:00 pm

Did you know that with your library card you can access FREE digital content? Attend this training session on Libby and hoopla to learn how to download movies, ebooks/audiobooks, music, magazines, and more!

Please bring the device you will be using to access the digital content along with you library card and the password/pin for your CW MARS account. If you need help accessing your password/pin - our staff can help!

Afternoon Author Talk

Michael Perna Jr.

Wednesday, September 25th

2:00 - 3:00 pm

The Jacob Edwards Library is pleased to host Michael Perna Jr. who will discuss his book Spag - His Life and Legacy.

From the time he was six years old, it was apparent that Anthony "Spag" Borgatti was destined to become a successful businessman. Starting off by helping out at his parent's store, he then moved on to selling gum on the Boston and Worcester trolleys. As he grew older, he started working for the Fuller Brush Company, selling door to door, then set out on his own by borrowing $35 from his mother to buy some fireworks to sell – which he did, making a huge profit! He soon opened his own business – the Shrewsbury Tire and Battery Company, located in a building owned by his parents on Route 9 in Shrewsbury, MA. The rest, as the saying goes, is history – Spag went on to become a hugely successful entrepreneur, with his business growing larger and larger over the years. By 1954, he was a millionaire! Spag's became known throughout the area and beyond – people travelled from all over to shop there for the bargains!

It is hoped, by documenting Spag and his legacy, that, not only those who still remember shopping at Spag's, but future generations will enjoy reading about the man himself, his family, and the amazing success story of Spag's!

About the author:

Michael Perna Jr. is a life-long resident of Shrewsbury, an author and a newspaper columnist. He is a local historian and was appointed Shrewsbury Town Historian in 2017. He is a past president of the Shrewsbury Historical Society, member of the town’s Historical Commission, and served as a member of the town’s Historic District Commission for many years. Michael is an avid historian, researching material dealing with both Shrewsbury and Lake Quinsigamond. He has written five books: Shrewsbury in the Civil War (1986), Remembering Lake Quinsigamond - From Steamboats to White City, (Chandler House Press, Worcester, MA – 1998) and the Arcadia books Shrewsbury (2001), Lake Quinsigamond and White City Park (2005), Shrewsbury Through Time (2014) and Shrewsbury Through Time, Vol II (2019).

Sponsored by Friends of Jacob Edwards Library.

If I Can Smile I Can Live:

A Presentation by Author Kyle Brodeur

Thursday, September 26th

6:30 - 7:30 pm

The Jacob Edwards Library is pleased to host a presentatioin by Kyle Brodeur on his book "If I Can Smile" All welcome! The presentation will be followed by a book signing.

From the author: "This is the story of Kyle Brodeur, a young life that was forever changed. He is a survivor of being hit head on by an impaired driver at the young age of ten years old. Kyle was fighting for his life with every breath he took, and not knowing his father was killed on impact. His two little sisters, only three and five years old, were injured and traumatized, and his mother severely injured. Kyle was in a year-long coma, relearning how to communicate, eat, and left with a Traumatic brain injury with severe dystonia and now paralyzed. He had to learn to live life in pain and accept that he will never walk or do anything for himself ever again. This young man is courageous, determined, and a warrior for everything he has been through. Kyle believes that Giving up is not an option and is an inspiration to live life to the fullest the best he can. This story will inspire you to keep going on, no matter what your challenges are. Life is for the living! NEVER STOP DREAMING and IF YOU CAN SMILE YOU CAN LIVE!"

Sponsored by Friends of Jacob Edwards Library.

The Demon of Unrest

by Erik Larson

"On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the fluky victor in a tight race for president. The country was bitterly at odds; Southern extremists were moving ever closer to destroying the Union, with one state after another seceding and Lincoln powerless to stop them. Slavery fueled the conflict, but somehow the passions of North and South came to focus on a lonely federal fortress in Charleston Harbor: Fort Sumter. ...[An] account of the chaotic months between Lincoln's election and the Confederacy's shelling of Sumter--a period marked by tragic errors and miscommunications, enflamed egos and craven ambitions, personal tragedies and betrayals. Lincoln himself wrote that the trials of these five months were 'so great that, could I have anticipated them, I would not have believed it possible to survive them.' At the heart of this ... narrative are Major Robert Anderson, Sumter's commander and a former slave owner sympathetic to the South but loyal to the Union; Edmund Ruffin, a vain and bloodthirsty radical who stirs secessionist ardor at every opportunity; and Mary Boykin Chesnut, wife of a prominent planter, conflicted over both marriage and slavery and seeing parallels between them. In the middle of it all is the overwhelmed Lincoln, battling with his duplicitous secretary of state, William Seward, as he tries desperately to avert a war that he fears is inevitable--one that will eventually kill 750,000 Americans. Drawing on diaries, secret communiques, slave ledgers, and plantation records, Larson gives us a political horror story..." - Provided by publisher.

Teen Advisory Group

Wednesday, September 11th

3:00 - 4:00 pm

Open to Southbridge students/residents ages 12-18.

Join our Teen Advisory Group (TAG) and help us improve our library services for teens. At monthly TAG meetings, you will weigh in on library programs, services, and materials, earn volunteer hours, make new friends, and build your leadership skills.

Loteria!

Saturday, September 21st

11:00 am - 12:00 pm

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, join us to play Loteria!

Loteria is a traditional Mexican board game of chance, similar to bingo, which is played with a deck of cards. For more information on the history of this popular game, visit: https://teresavillegas.com/history-of-la-loteria/

Join us on the fourth Thursday of every month starting September 26, 2024 at 3:30 pm- 4:30 pm.

This is a sensory friendly space to read together, make friends, and explore sensory activities.

 This program is inclusive, but primarily created with children on the Autism Spectrum in mind. For ages 4 and up.

Author Emily Franke

REVISED DATE

Saturday

September 7, 2024

10:30am

Littles Wiggles and Giggles

Thursdays 9:45am-10:15am

Registration required

Starting September 12, 2024

Wiggles and Giggles

Thursdays 10:30am-11:30am

Registration Required

Starting September 12, 2024

Come Make Your Mark!

Celebrate International Dot Day

All Day

September 13, 2024

Imagination Station

Mondays

6:30pm-7:30pm

Lego Club

Tuesdays

3:30pm - 4:30pm

Saturdays

10:30am-11:30am

Crafty Wednesday

All Day

Every Week



Board of Trustees Meeting

The next meeting of the Board of Trustees is scheduled for Tuesday, September 24th at 12 pm in the Mills Room.

Details will be available on the Town of Southbridge website, under Public Meetings Calendar, for all public meetings.

All meetings are open to the public.

The mission of the Friends of the Jacob Edwards Library is to be the advocacy and fundraising arm of the Library. We raise money for items such as library programs, books, subscriptions, museum pass memberships, and other materials, as needed. 

New members are always welcome! Our membership dues go directly toward supporting the Jacob Edwards Library.

See you at the library!

Jacob Edwards Library

508.764.5426

jelibrary@cwmars.org