The Captain’s Coup: Reviving Wilfred Burchett's Activist Journalism about the Portuguese Carnation Revolution (Main)
Join Professors Daniela Melo and Timothy Walker, the co-editors of a new scholarly edition of legendary Australian journalist Wilfred Burchett’s writing on the Portuguese “Carnation” Revolution, in a discussion of this new edition-- published in English for the first-time (Verso Books, UK). Melo and Walker will discuss how Burchett’s reporting sought to demonstrate the power and strength of popular mobilizations during the Revolution, shifting the focus away from political elites toward mobilized citizens. Burchett's analysis on the roles of political elites, economic elites, and mobilization provides rich insights, revealing the types of networks and interactions between these actors, and the roles that narrative, storytelling, and emotions played in the making of the Portuguese Revolution. This event is cosponsored by the Consul General of Portugal in Boston and the Cambridge Public Library. Registration is required.
CPL Presents: Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood (Main)
Join Gretchen Sisson, the author of Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood (a finalist for the 2025 Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction) in conversation with Cameron Russell, the author of How to Make Herself Agreeable to Everyone.
Gretchen Sisson is a research sociologist at Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, where she studies abortion and adoption in the United States. Her research was cited in the Supreme Court's dissent for Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, and has been covered in the Washington Post, TIME Magazine, The Nation, NPR, New York Magazine, VOX, Mother Jones, and many other outlets. Registration is required.
Karen Russell Presents: The Antidote (Main)
Harvard Book Store and the Cambridge Public Library welcome Karen Russell—award-winning author of six books of fiction, including the New York Times bestsellers Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove—for a discussion of her new novel The Antidote.
Registration is required.
RESCHEDULED Defying the Crown in Early Cambridge: The 1664 Petition Campaign and Grassroots Constitutionalism
This event was rescheduled from May 22 and will now take place on May 28.
The new king Charles II sent royal commissioners to New England in 1664 in order to pressure colonists into compliance with his metropolitan agenda. When these royal commissioners tried to claim full authority over local courts and militias, Cambridge inhabitants were among the first to act in defiance. Their grassroots petition campaign drew on the experience of the English civil wars and pointed the way forward to the American Revolution.
Adrian Chastain Weimer is a Professor of History at Providence College and is currently a Long-term Fellow at the John Carter Brown Library. She is the author of A Constitutional Culture: New England and the Struggle against Arbitrary Rule in the Restoration Empire (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2023) and Martyrs' Mirror: Persecution and Holiness in Early New England (Oxford University Press, 2011).
Evening Yoga at the CPL (Main)
Shayla Tate of M.U.D.D. Flower Yoga leads us through a 60-minute outdoor evening flow. Registration is preferred but not required. The Library will not provide any materials - please bring your own mat and whatever items are in your practice. In case of inclement weather, the event will take place in the Community Room.
Evening Yoga at the CPL (Main)
Shayla Tate of M.U.D.D. Flower Yoga leads us through a 60-minute outdoor evening flow. Registration is preferred but not required. The Library will not provide any materials - please bring your own mat and whatever items are in your practice. In case of inclement weather, the event will take place in the Community Room.
Evening Yoga at the CPL (Main)
Shayla Tate of M.U.D.D. Flower Yoga leads us through a 60-minute outdoor evening flow. Registration is preferred but not required. The Library will not provide any materials - please bring your own mat and whatever items are in your practice. In case of inclement weather, the event will take place in the Community Room.
Book a Room at the Library
The Cambridge Public Library offers meeting and programs spaces for groups of varying sizes to serve an educational, cultural or civic purpose.