Summer Fitness: Tai Chi under the tree (Main)
Join instructor Ellen DeGenova, at the main branch park, to explore Tai Chi elements (without the complicated choreography). Tai Chi offers highly adaptable and accessible ways of moving for everyone. Being outdoors and learning together inspires a sense of well-being and community. A seated option is available. No experience necessary. In case of inclement weather, class will be held in the library’s Community Room.
Summer Fitness: Tai Chi under the Tree (Main)
Join instructor Ellen DeGenova, at the main branch park, to explore Tai Chi elements (without the complicated choreography). Tai Chi offers highly adaptable and accessible ways of moving for everyone. Being outdoors and learning together inspires a sense of well-being and community. A seated option is available. No experience necessary. In case of inclement weather, class will be held in the library’s Community Room.
Live at the Library: Rosalita's Puppets: Enchanted Castle
Meet Godmother Glitter as she protects the Enchanted Castle from the dragon. Enjoy a selection of fun stories and meet all kinds of puppets from a unicorn and a rabbit to a prince and a frog.
Recommended for children ages 3 and up and their caregivers.
Metabolic Approaches to Mental Illness: The Role of Ketogenic Therapies in the Treatment of Severe Mental Illness (Main)
Severe mental illnesses such as depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia have traditionally been understood through the lenses of neurotransmitters, psychology, and social stressors. Increasingly, however, research is revealing that metabolism—how the body and brain generate and use energy—plays a fundamental role in brain function and mental health.
This talk will explore the growing science linking metabolic dysfunction to psychiatric illness and introduce ketogenic therapies as a promising, evidence-informed approach for individuals with serious mental illness.
Drawing from clinical research and real-world experience, the presentation will examine how ketogenic interventions may influence brain energy metabolism, inflammation, and neural signaling—and how, for some people, these changes can reduce symptoms and even lead to remission and recovery for people with treatment-resistant SMI.
The goal of this talk is to provide education, context, and hope, while emphasizing that ketogenic therapies should be approached thoughtfully, safely, and in collaboration with qualified healthcare professionals.
Reading of the Combahee River Collective Statement (Central Square)
“If Black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free since our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all the systems of oppression.”
- Combahee River Collective, April 1977
Come to the Central Square Library to gather for a reading of the Combahee River Collective (CRC) statement. Centered in Black feminist lesbian socialist politics, the CRC argued for the centering of anti-racist and anti-sexist politics within feminist and civil rights organizing respectively. Though the CRC is no longer active, its work and its members continue to have deep influence in Black feminism and beyond.
We will read the statement aloud together, sharing the words and wisdom of the Combahee River Collective with opportunity to discuss their continued resonance.
This event will be followed by a 4-session reading group to discuss the second edition of How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. For more information and to register for the reading group, please see here.
This event was created in partnership with Community Conversations: Sister to Sister, the Cambridge LGBTQ+ Commission, and the Cambridge Women’s Commission.
Community Visioning Workshop with the A.R.T. and ProBlak (Main)
Join the American Repertory Theater, in collaboration with the artists Dr. Rob "Problak" Gibbs and Gina Latham, for an afternoon community mural visioning workshop. Attendees will be invited to share stories, values, references, and insights that will inform the eventual development of a community mural at the A.R.T.'s new location.
The two-hour workshop is free, designed for all ages, and open to the public. Registration is encouraged but not required.