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Join us for a story time where we learn about the animals that live at Land’s Sake Farm! Recommended for children of all ages and their caregivers. Registration is recommended. Space may be limited. Funding for Summer Reading has been generously provided by the City of Cambridge, Cambridge Public Library Foundation and Friends of the Cambridge Public Library.

Class on 4/22 will take place outside of the library. Please email bquinlan@cambridgema.gov with questions. Class will take place at the Main Library on 4/29. We live in an age where we carry our smartphones everywhere we go. Built into this device is a camera that can help us document the world around us. Whether it’s taking family portraits, beautiful landscapes, or in some cases the meal we just sat down to eat, we’re all constantly taking photos. This class will not only teach you to take the best possible photos, but how to edit your photos to make them look as good as they possibly can. We will also cover how to organize the photos on your phone. We will learn how to become visual storytellers through projects I'll assign each week followed by thoughtful group discussions of your photos. You need only bring two things to this class: your smartphone and your imagination. This program will be held in the Rindge Room.

For four decades, Johnisha Matthews Levi believed a conventional story about her birth, picturing her happy parents at the hospital together. While sorting through her late mother's belongings, however, she discovered a document indicating that her father was instead serving time in Lorton Correctional Complex. This revelation, along with rumors about an FBI investigation of her deceased parents' "private business," leads Levi to unearth the hidden history of her family. She ties this story to public policy, demonstrating how state lottery legalization and the War on Drugs disrupted the Black institutions and communities in Washington, DC. Registration is required.

In January 2020, the largest and most eagerly awaited cache of new materials written by the Nobel-Prize-winning poet T. S. Eliot was finally opened: the 1,131 letters he sent Emily Hale, his little-known American love, over the course of their lifetimes. Their relationship was, in their own words, an “unnatural” love affair, one that began in Cambridge in 1913, when Eliot was a graduate student at Harvard and Hale, an aspiring amateur actress, and that played out in Boston, England and California over the years. Named as one of its "Fifty Notable Non-fiction Books of 2024" by the Washington Post, Fitzgerald's biography of Hale is based on the embargoed letters and extensive research into Hale’s life and times. Hale was much more than just a muse to a literary celebrity. She overcame personal hardship to pursue a career as a professor of speech and drama at prominent American women’s colleges and schools, including Simmons and Smith Colleges and Abbot and Concord Academies. She was a talented amateur actress and director, who performed at many Boston area theaters and later guided Eliot as he tried his hand at playwriting. But in the end, Eliot disavowed her, sending a secret letter to Harvard in 1960 that claimed his love for Hale was that of “a ghost for a ghost,” and confirming that he had arranged for Hale’s side of their 27-year correspondence to be destroyed. In the words of The Washington Post reviewer, “Missing letters, a secret love affair, a famous poet, a beautiful actress—what else could you possibly want in a story?" Sara Fitzgerald is a retired journalist whose career included fifteen years as an editor and new media developer for The Washington Post. In 2020, she also published The Poet’s Girl: A Novel of Emily Hale and T. S. Eliot. Since then, her essays about Hale have appeared in multiple volumes of the Journal of the T. S. Eliot Society and the T. S. Eliot Studies Annual. She has presented at the annual meetings of the Modern Language Association, the American Historical Association, the International T. S. Eliot Society, and at the T. S. Eliot Summer School at Oxford. She is also the author of the biography, Elly Peterson: “Mother” of the Moderates and Conquering Heroines: How Women Fought Sex Bias at Michigan and Paved the Way for Title IX.

Need to get better at managing your money? Join the East Cambridge Savings Bank for a workshop on the importance of establishing and maintaining good credit. Thank you to the East Cambridge Savings Bank for sponsoring this program. Registration helpful.

Harvard Book Store, the Harvard University Division of Science, the Harvard Library, Long Now Boston, and the Cambridge Public Library welcome Lisa S. Gardiner—science writer, geoscientist, educator, and author of Tales from an Uncertain World: What Other Assorted Disasters Can Teach Us about Climate Change—for a discussion of her book Reefs of Time: What Fossils Reveal about Coral Survival. Registration is required.

Join Ora Grodsky, the author of Justice, Love, and Organizational Healing: A Guide to Transformational Consulting in a discussion about her new book. Ora Grodsky is a mission-driven organizational development consultant with over 25 years of experience. She is a holistic practitioner who combines training in acupuncture, non-profit management expertise, extensive study of organizational development, and commitment to compassion and justice. Ora will be in conversation about the book and organizational healing with dear colleagues and friends—consultants and facilitators also dedicated to justice and liberation: Joyce Shabazz Melinda Barbosa Daniel Michaud Weinstock Jeremy Philips

To mark the 250th anniversaries of the American Revolution and the founding of the United States, a coalition of local non-profits and government agencies will present Washington in American Memory, a seven-part speaker series. Explore the 19th century origins of preservation at Mount Vernon, current conservation work, and the estate’s future, featuring: Doug Bradburn, President and CEO of George Washington’s Mount Vernon and co-founder and editor of the book series, Early American Histories Andrea Sahin, Vice Regent for Massachusetts to the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association

Join the Cambridge Public Library in celebrating Pride Month by welcoming Kristen Arnett, author of Mostly Dead Things, With Teeth, and—published just this past March—STOP ME IF YOU'VE HEARD THIS ONE. After a reading from her work, Arnett will be joined in conversation by Jill McDonough, author of five books of poetry including American Treasure and Here All Night. Called "a perversely funny novel about family, ambition, and desire" (Shelf Awareness), STOP ME IF YOU'VE HEARD THIS ONE follows a professional clown, Cherry Hendricks, as she tries to stay true to her needs as a person as well as an artist. This is a hybrid event and registration is required. This event is cosponsored by the Cambridge Public Library Foundation.

Learn about the structure of the plants we eat from root to fruit and what portions of different plants are or are not edible. Recommended for ages 5 and up. Funding for Summer Reading has been generously provided by the City of Cambridge, Cambridge Public Library Foundation, Friends of the Cambridge Public Library and the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.