All programs are free! Most are funded by The Friends of the Kent Memorial Library. Become a member! Please register for programs.
Every Month
Unless noted, the programs are at 61 Ffyler Place
New members are welcome at all our programs, including book discussions and the cookbook club.
Photo Café – 1st Tuesday, May 7 at 6:30 p.m.
Cookbook Club – 2nd Tuesday, May 14 at 12:45 p.m.
Writer’s Workshop – May 20, 7 p.m.
Socrates Café – No meeting this month.
Ask George for technical help – TBD.
Book Discussions
May 9: 12:30 p.m. Thursday Readers: Toms River by Dennis Fagan.
May 16: 7 p.m. World Book: Hum If You Don’t Know the Words by Bianca Marais.
May 30: 2 p.m. Suffield by the River: Beartown by Fredrik Bachman.
TBD: 2 p.m. Books in the Parlor at the Phelps Hatheway House Visitor Center: House of Mirth by Edith Wharton.
Tuesday, April 30, at 7 p.m at the Senior Center.
Forgotten Farms: A Film.
Sponsored by the Friends of the Farm at Hilltop and the Kent Memorial Library. The film gives a glimpse into the past and presents a vision for a future regional food system. It highlights the need to examine differences, develop mutual understanding and find common ground between the new food movement and traditional farming. New England has lost over 10,000 dairy farms in the past 50 years; fewer than 2,000 farms remain. Collectively, farmers tend 1.2 million acres of farmland and produce almost all of the milk consumed in New England. In our enthusiasm for the new food movement, we often overlook the farmers at the foundation of the regional agricultural economy. Only 100 years ago, New England produced most of its own food on 16 million acres of farmland. Climate change will demand that more of our food is grown closer to where we live. As we strive to revive local production, we have much to learn from dairy farmers who have been managing most of the farmland and sustaining the farm economy all along. Through conversations with farmers and policy experts, the film reconsiders the role of these vital but forgotten farmers. The filmmakers, Dave Simonds and Sarah Gardner, will be at the program for a question and answer session following the film presentation.
Monday, May 6 6:30-8 p.m.
Tami Zawistoski Office Hours.
Thursday, May 9, 7 p.m. at the Senior Center
American Creed.
The 1925 Culture War or How America Lost Itself but was found on the Silver Screen.
Professor Winthrop Rhodes, Professor of English at Western New England University, will present this look at America almost 100 years ago, citing how our American creed is portrayed in popular entertainment – the books and movies. Five books which were published in 1925 embody diverging stories of our nation. They are: The Great Gatsby, American Tragedy, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, the Bread Givers and Manhattan Transfer.
If interested in reading any of these books before the program, they are available for check-out at the library. The books show different reflections of the American Creed. But which one was correct? And how was the nation’s ideals perceived on the silver screen? This splintering of the image Americans had of themselves is eerily relevant to our culture today. This program is part of a series made possible by a grant that the library received. American Creed: Community Conversations is a project of Citizen Film in partnership with the American Library Association and the National Writing Project, with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and with funding from the Friends of the Library.
Grand Opening and the Human Chain
It looks like the library will be back at our beloved 50 North Main Street SOON! The library staff, Friends of KML, the Library Commission and the Library Foundation are planning GRAND OPENING ACTIVITIES, so stayed tuned. One thing the library staff would like to do is to create a human chain from the temporary library at Ffyler Place to the BIG HOUSE at 50 North Main Street to move some books. It would only be a symbolic gesture as most of the books will be moved by trucks and not humans, but it would make a great photo opportunity. If you would like to be part of the Kent Memorial Library Human Chain, please contact Jackie Hemond at jhemond@suffield-library.org or by phone 860-668-3896.