Alphabet Craft Time (O'Connell)
Come hear stories and songs about things that start with the letter B, and make a bear from a brown paper bag. We will be using scissors and glue. Recommended for ages 4-6 with a caregiver.
No registration is required. Please call (617) 349-4019 for details.
Sennott Park Renovation Project
This very actively used park lies along Broadway at the intersection with Norfolk Street and is right next to the Area IV Youth Center. The area features multi-purpose playing fields, a playground, water play and basketball courts. One edge of the park was improved in 2010 with a walking path, ornamental fencing, park furniture and landscaping.
Man Charged for Role in July 4th Fatal Shooting in Cambridge
CAMBRIDGE – Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and Cambridge Police Commissioner Pauline Wells have announced that Rayquon Brown, 29 of Canton, has been arrested and charged with murder, carrying a firearm without a license, being an armed career criminal, and conspiring to commit murder. On July 4, 2026, at approximately 5:24 AM, the Cambridge Police Department received a call from pedestrians who, while out on a walk, found a man, later identified as Xavier Bautista, lying in a pool of blood in the area of Norfolk Street and Broadway Street.
Rayquon Brown was arraigned today at Cambridge District Court and ordered held without bail. The next date in this case is Friday, July 17, 2026.
Anyone with information on this incident is asked to contact the Cambridge Police Department at (617) 349-3300.
Anonymous tips can be shared with the Cambridge Police Department through phone, text or e-mail. Instructions for doing so are available on the CPD website
Summer Reading: Tiny Gardens Everywhere (Main)
Uncover the radical roots of urban gardening with Kate Brown, author of Tiny Gardens Everywhere (2026).
The history of gardening in European and North American cities in the 20th century is a story about ordinary people working with each other—and with plants and microbes—to cultivate life in the unlikeliest of places. Using the deluge of nutrients that flow into cities, working class gardeners regenerated wasteland, built the first garden city communities, and engaged in the most productive agriculture in recorded human history. Following the plants and microbes, urban gardeners also built mutual aid societies that advocated for equity, social welfare, and rights—rights not to liberty and the pursuit of happiness (who can eat that?) but to food, fuel, and shelter; to well-being for all.
Kate Brown is the Thomas M. Siebel Distinguished Professor in the History of Science at MIT. Her prize-winning books include Manual for Survival: A Chernobyl Guide to the Future (2019), Plutopia: Nuclear Families in Atomic Cities and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters (2013), and A Biography of No Place: From Ethnic Borderland to Soviet Heartland (2004).
Presented in partnership with City of Cambridge Community Garden Program.
Romance Book Group (Main)
This month's book: Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
Audience: Teens and Adults. If you read romance (or want to start), this group is for you!
Reading Interests: This group will explore the burgeoning genre of contemporary romance. Example selections include: Honey and Spice by Bolu Babalola and Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner.
How to get the print book: Copies of the print book are set aside at the Main Library Q&A Desk on the ground floor. Visit the Main Library at 449 Broadway during service hours and a staff member can help you check out a copy.
How to get the e-book or digital audiobook: This month’s book is available as an e-book and digital audiobook through both Libby and Hoopla.
We'll meet in the Teen Room on the first floor of the Main Library.
For more information, contact Francesca at fedouard@cambridgema.gov.
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).
Cookbook Club (Collins)
November Selection: Appetizers! We have selected three books for this month's potluck. Choose one book to cook from (or more than one if you're feeling adventurous).
The books:
Brilliant Bites: 75 Amazing Small Bites for Any Occasion by Maegan Brown
Martha Stewart's Appetizers: 200 recipes for dips, spreads, snacks, small plates, and other delicious hors d'oeuvres, plus 30 cocktails by Martha Stewart
I'll Bring the Apps: Bites, Bowls, Boards & Beverages by Marissa Mullen
Join friends and neighbors for a potluck! Try a recipe and bring your results or thoughts to share and discuss with other cooks. All experience levels welcome. No need to bring a dish to join.
Books will be available for pick up at the Boudreau and Collins Branches during library hours.
This event will take place indoors at the Collins Branch - 64 Aberdeen Ave.
For more information contact Emily at egonzalez@cambridgema.gov or call the Collins Branch at 617-349-4021.
CPL Presents America Unfinished: 250 Years of Law and Governance (Main)
Join editors Alexandra Natapoff and Guy-Uriel Charles, along with contributors to America Unfinished: 250 Years of Law and Governance, for a discussion of this new collection of essays marking America’s 250th anniversary. The panel will be moderated by John Goldberg, the Dean of Harvard Law School who is also a contributor.
America Unfinished brings together more than 50 legal scholars from the Harvard Law School faculty to examine a pivotal moment in American law and governance. The collection’s 62 essays explore topics including the expansion of executive power, the relationship between workers, consumers, and markets, democratic accountability in a market-driven economy, and the future of knowledge and governance institutions amid rapid technological change.
Contributors include Stephen Breyer, Tomiko Brown-Nagin, Noah Feldman, Annette Gordon-Reed, Randall Kennedy, Jill Lepore, Lawrence Lessig, Bruce H. Mann, Martha Minow, and Cass R. Sunstein. Sponsored by the Cambridge Public Library and the Cambridge Public Library Foundation.
Porter Square Books will have books on-hand for purchase at the event. Registration is not required.