Welcome back to the Concord Free Public Library! The Main Library and the Fowler Branch will reopen to the public for browsing and other limited in-person services starting May 19, 2021, at 10:00 a.m.

Hours:

Curbside Service Changes:

Safety Guidelines:

We look forward to seeing you and welcoming you back to the Library!

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Krysten Hill & Cynthia Manick: A Reading and Conversation with Joyce Peseroff

[Register for Webinar Link]

The Poetry at the Library Series caps its 2020-21 season with the vibrant voices of award-winning Black poets Krysten Hill and Cynthia Manick in conversation with poet-editor Joyce Peseroff.

Krysten Hill's How Her Spirit Got Out (Aforementioned Productions) is a lively, urgent song of the writers whose voices raised her and the women who brought her up. "Hill understands the power of narrative and savor of vernacular speech," writes Joyce Peseroff. "The result is a voice that is beautiful and raw, intimate yet public, both confident and vulnerable." Hill has received the 2016 St. Botolph Club Foundation Emerging Artist Award, the 2017 Jean Pedrick Chapbook Prize, and a 2020 Mass Cultural Council Poetry Fellowship. Hill has widely showcased her poetry on stage. Her work has been featured in The Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day Series, and elsewhere. She teaches creative writing at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Cynthia Manick's Blue Hallelujahs (Black Lawrence Press) is a book of confident, powerful meditations about family, womanhood, and racial histories. Poet Nikky Finney, National Book Award winner, writes that " these are not the things you will hear about Black people on the nightly news. But they remain the things that lock the arms of Black people around Black people when we need to keep moving on." Winner of the Lascaux Prize in Collected Poetry and a number of fellowships, Manick's work has appeared in Los Angeles Review of Books (LARB), The Wall Street Journal, Callaloo, the Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day Series, and elsewhere. She is editor of two poetry anthologies, Northeast Editor of Jamii Publishing, and Founder/Curator of the Soul Sister Revue Reading Series.

Poetry at the Library Series is sponsored by the Friends of the Concord Free Public Library.

Tuesday, May 18, 7:00 - 8:00 p.m.

Join author Julie Morgenlender for a discussion of her book The Things We Don’t Say: An Anthology of Chronic Illness Truths. Chronically ill people don’t always talk about it. Until now. Spanning different ages, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, and diagnoses, forty-two authors from around the world open up in fifty true stories about their chronic illnesses and their search for answers, poor treatment by doctors, strained relationships with loved ones, self-doubt, and more. Julie Morgenlender is a friend, daughter, aunt, crocheter, reader, creator of this anthology, and so much more, despite being unable to work full time. [Register for Zoom Link]

Wednesday, May 19, 2:00 - 3:00 p.m.

Love a good mystery? All are welcome to join our mystery book discussion via Zoom. May's title is As Long As We Both Shall Live by Joann Chaney. Print copies of the title are available at the Fowler Branch for pickup. An eBook and an audiobook of the title can be requested via OverDrive. [Register for Discussion Zoom Link]

Join Be Well Be Here for a 30-minute morning meditation practice with the Concord Free Public Library, and start your day with a moment of ease. Discover mindful tools that center the body, settle the mind, and open the door to well-being. [Register for May 20 Zoom Link]

Founded by former CFPL staff members Enid Hart Boasberg and Kitty Smith, the Concord Seed Lending Library has been an important initiative of the Concord Free Public Library for the past eight years. Enid will join us via zoom to discuss its history and the importance of seed saving. She will be available to answer your questions -- about starting (and sustaining!) a seed lending library and saving seeds. [Register for Zoom Link]

Join Jan Turnquist, Executive Director of Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House, as she discusses Miss Alcott's life as a writer. Jan will share anecdotes that reveal what shaped Louisa's writing style as well as advice that the celebrated author of Little Women (among many other books) offered to fledgling writers who asked for her help.

WRITE CONCORD! is a town-wide collaborative literary series sponsored by Be Well Be Here, CCACE, the Concord Festival of Authors and the Friends of the Concord Free Public Library. [Register for Zoom Link]

Mondays, 10:00 a.m. on the Library's Facebook Page

Every Monday, thirteen year-old Concordian Jacob reads a special story from our staff-curated list of 101 Picture Books Concord Free Public Library Loves! Can't make the Facebook video premiere at 10? No problem! "Jacob Reads" storytimes will be archived in a playlist, linked above.

Monday, May 17, 11:00 - 11:30 a.m.

Hear stories, songs, and rhymes in this gentle half hour story time for our very youngest readers. [Register for Zoom Link]

Monday, May 17, 5:00 - 5:30 p.m.

Get a jumpstart on bedtime with stories, songs, and rhymes! [Register for Zoom Link]

Tuesday, May 18, 9:30 - 10:15 a.m. and 10:30 - 11:15 a.m.

Join Fowler Branch librarian Dorrie Karlin at the labyrinth garden at the West Concord Union Church (1317 Main St), across the street from Fowler, for an in-person storytime! We will share stories, songs, and rhymes. We have limited space (10 families), so please register. Your registration is for all attending family members. [Register for 9:30 a.m. Storytime] [Register for 10:30 a.m. Storytime]

Tuesday, May 18, 10:30 - 11:15 a.m.

Join The Nature Connection through Zoom as we explore plants and animals, geek out over nature, and connect with ourselves and those around us in new ways - all through nature based stories and poems. This month we'll be learning about birds, nests and eggs! [Register for Zoom Link]

Tuesday, May 18, 4:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Do you love writing? Games? If so, join us for a writing RPG, a game where you can create your own characters, interact with other participants, and jump into different worlds, in order to write a collaborative story. For tweens/teens ages 10-16. No writing experience required! For more information, contact Madeline at mklein@minlib.net. [Register for Zoom Link]

Wednesday, May 19, 10:00 - 10:30 a.m.

Join us on Zoom for some short stories, songs, & rhymes! This is a great way to build early literacy skills. This program is geared for pre-schoolers, but all ages are welcome to join. [Register for Zoom Link]

Wednesday, May 19, 1:30 - 2:00 p.m.

Hear stories, songs, and rhymes in this gentle half hour story time for our very youngest readers. [Register for Zoom Link]

Wednesday, May 19, 4:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Join The Nature Connection through Zoom as we explore plants and animals, geek out over nature, and connect with ourselves and those around us in new ways - all through nature based stories and poems. This month we'll be learning about birds, nests and eggs! [Register for Zoom Link]

Join Branch Librarian Dorrie for stories, songs, and rhymes. Please register to receive the Zoom link. For ages 5 and under. The same link will work weekly. [Register for Zoom Link]

Join us for an interactive sing-along with Ed Morgan, “The Music Man.” Learn fun ways to connect with your family through music. This family-friendly performance will have everyone up moving, dancing and singing. [Register for Zoom Link]

Hey Kids - Feeling crafty? Let's make this week's take and make craft together! Pick up a free craft kit at curbside pickup, and join us on Zoom. We will do the craft together and enjoy a story. New kits are available at the start of each week while supplies last. [Register for Zoom Link]

Join Host-extraordinaire Cary Stough for Family trivia: crazy fun categories, prizes. JOKES galore! via Zoom and Kahoot. [Register for Zoom Link]

That's right! We are back. First three Saturdays of every month. Join Cary Stough, Senior Library Assistant and resident Master of Poetry, for boundary-pushing weekend writing! No experience required. Age limits are mainly arbitrary: if you wanna join, just sign up! [Register for Zoom Link]

The Charles Williams Scholarship Committee, an initiative of the Concord Free Public Library Corporation, is accepting scholarship applications from college-bound High School Seniors residing in Concord, MA for The Charles Williams Scholarship for Excellence in Music and The Charles Williams Scholarship for Excellence in the Visual Arts.

The deadline for submissions for both scholarships is Friday, June 4, 2021.

For more information, please visit here.

The Philosophers’ Camp in the Adirondacks by William James Stillman is one of the best-known works in the art collection of the William Munroe Special Collections. The painting shows a visit by the so-called “Adirondack Club” to the Adirondack wilderness in 1858. The painting has been on loan to the Smithsonian American Art Museum since early 2020 for the exhibit Alexander von Humboldt and the United States: Art, Nature, and Culture. While the exhibit closed due to the pandemic, we have good news! The exhibit reopens this Friday, May 14, through July 11, 2021. Wednesday through Sunday 11:30 a.m.–7:00 p.m. Free, timed-entry passes are now available. Passes will be good for entry to both the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery.

In case you missed it, Concord Stories previously featured an interview with SAAM’s Dr. Eleanor Harvey, the senior curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. In her presentation, Eleanor focused on the significance of including Concord Free Public Library’s painting in her exhibition, and the relationships between the Concord Transcendentalists and Humboldt.