Please email Adult Programming Coordinator Tracy Thorpe at tthorpe@clamsnet.org to sign up, get Zoom invite, and/or ask questions.
Saturdays, July 11 and 18, 2:00-3:30: POETRY DROP-IN with Donald Nitchie.
A workshop consisting of in-class writing exercises using poems as models. Donald’s poetry collection, Driving Lessons, was published in 2008, and he has published his poems in local periodicals.
Donald has led various types of writing workshops on Martha’s Vineyard,and began offering poetry workshops in 2018.
Admission is free. Email tthorpe@clamsnet.org to sign up and get the Zoom invitation. The program is sponsored by the Friends of the Chilmark Public Library. For more information, please call 508-645-3360.
Wednesday, July 15, 5PM: FREEDOM SONGS: ARTIST TALK with KEVIN BLYTHE SAMPSON.
Wednesday, July 15, 5PM In this virtual talk, Kevin Sampson, a featured artist in the Mariposa Museum’s exhibit Freedom Songs will discuss his interactive, found object assemblage being created at the Union Chapel from July 12-19th. Kevin will create a sculpture incorporating objects found on the Vineyard or donated by the community. Its theme will be The Legend of the Flying Africans from African American oral history. In the sculpture, the Flying Africans will become a metaphor for the #Black Lives Matter movement, powered by youth who can no longer accept the failings of a society they are to inherit. Like the Igbos in the legend, they will don wings and sail toward change and a home offering a better future and new normal. Objects from the community as well as found objects, will be used (disinfect prior, please).
Kevin Sampson is a found object assemblage artist from Ironbound, NJ. Raised in a civil rights family, his first career as a police detective in Newark gave him “a unique perspective on the human condition.”
Admission is free. Email tthorpe@clamsnet.org to sign up and get the Zoom invitation. The program is sponsored by the Friends of the Chilmark Public Library. For more information, please call 508-645-3360.
July 20-24, view on your own. THE POLLINATORS: THE AWARD-WINNING FILM with the Chilmark Library and Island Grown Initiative.
Our complex food system rests on the wings of the honey bee and the commercial beekeepers that move them from farm to orchard pollinating the crops that produce the food we eat. The Chilmark Library in collaboration with Island Grown Initiative present The Pollinators, the award-winning cinematic journey around the United States following the migratory beekeepers and their truckloads of honeybees as they pollinate the flowers that become the fruits, nuts and vegetable we all eat. We will talk to farmers, scientists, chefs, economists, and academics along the way to give a broad perspective about threats to honeybees and what it means to our food security. View the trailer at thepollinators.net. View on your own.
Admission is free. Sponsored by the Friends of the Chilmark Library.
Wednesday, July 29, 4 PM: TICKS: “ONE BITE CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE…” with Larry Dapsis, entomologist Cape Cod Extension.
Lyme Disease is the most prevalent tick-borne disease in Massachusetts and is now considered to be a public health crisis. In addition to Lyme, deer ticks can carry the pathogens which cause Babesiosis, Anaplasmosis, Relapsing Fever and Powassan virus, all of which can be very serious.
This virtual program will review the basic life cycle and ecology of deer, dog and lone star ticks. A three-point protection plan will be presented: Protect Yourself, Protect Your Yard and Protect your Pet. Tick-borne diseases are preventable.
Free. Sponsored by the Friends of the Chilmark Library. 508-645-3360
Upcoming Adult Programs
June 30-July 21, 10:30-12:00: ONLINE MEMOIR WRITING WORKSHOP with Moira Silva.
In this virtual course, writers are invited to tell whatever story is closest to them. They may dive into what's happening now or reflect on prior experiences. Or both.
A blend of exercises, readings and discussions will connect writers with their writing and themselves. Participants will form a supportive community while sharing in-process work. We will honor whatever is created, be it essays, songs, letters or entirely new genres. After four weeks, writers will leave lighter in spirit and richer in purpose.
No writing experience required.
You will need a device that allows you to use the free program Zoom. Please call the library if you need help setting this up.
Facilitated by seasoned writing instructor Moira Convey Silva. She is not so seasoned with online teaching so she appreciates your patience there.
Moira Convey Silva is a writing instructor, writing consultant, yoga teacher, community activist, and award-winning writer who, for over 10 years, has freelanced for national and local periodicals. Focusing on features and essays, especially ones that relate to sustainability, Silva’s writing most notably appears in the Boston Globe, Women’s Running and Taproot. She, arguably, always has the loudest laugh in the room.
Admission is free. The program is sponsored by the Friends of the Chilmark Public Library. Email tthorpe@clamsnet.org to sign up and get the Zoom invitation. For more information, please call 508-645-3360.
Friday, July 3rd, at 4 PM: THE RISE OF TOURISM ON MARTHA’S VINEYARD with Tom Dresser.
Join the Chilmark Library for a virtual book talk with Tom Dresser on The Rise of Tourism on Martha’s Vineyard,a synopsis of the evolution of tourism from the Methodist Camp Meeting Association that began in 1835 to the amusement park atmosphere at the dawn of the 20th century. Other topics covered in the book range from Azorean whalemen to land developers to African American vacationers.
The final chapter, Two Bridges, Two Presidents, explores the explosion of the tourist industry in the half century since the incident on the Dike Bridge in 1969 and the filming of Jaws on Memorial Bridge in 1974, as well as the presidential vacations of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
With the Covid-19 pandemic, the summer of 2020 will be very different from previous tourist experiences. He will discuss the impact of the virus on so many elements of the tourist industry: from restaurants and hotels to bus tours and ice cream parlors. This year, unfortunately, will be memorable in that it will not reflect the rise of tourism but its (hopefully temporary) fall.
Thomas Dresser has lived on the Vineyard for a quarter century and written a dozen non-fiction books about the history of Martha’s Vineyard. Prior to taking up pen and paper he taught elementary school for a decade. He ran nursing homes for twenty years in various Massachusetts communities. For fifteen years he drove tour buses in the summer and school buses off-season on the Vineyard.
Admission is free. Email tthorpe@clamsnet.org to sign up and get the Zoom invitation. The program is sponsored by the Friends of the Chilmark Public Library. For more information, please call 508-645-3360
Wednesday, July 8, 4 PM. POLLINATION ECOLOGY—HOW CAN WE HELP BEES? With Larry Dapsis.
Wednesday, July 8, 4 PM. Honeybees, both locally and nationally have been suffering catastrophic losses. This virtual program will review honey bee biology and the factors responsible for this problem. In addition, we will review the state of wild pollinators like bumble bees and the things residents can do to help them. Many of the fruits and vegetables we eat require pollination.
Entomologist since age 5. B.S. Environmental Science & Biology at Fitchburg State University and M.S. Entomology at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst. Thirty-six years of professional pest management experience including Vegetables, Cranberries and Household Insects. Joined Cape Cod Cooperative Extension in 2011 as Deer Tick Project Coordinator and Entomologist and is a member of the Barnstable County Task Force on Lyme and other Tick-Borne Diseases.
Admission is free. Email tthorpe@clamsnet.org to sign up and get the Zoom invitation. The program is sponsored by the Friends of the Chilmark Public Library. For more information, please call 508-645-3360.
