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Please join the Cambridge Public Library in welcoming Cristanne Miller, the co-editor of The Letters of Emily Dickinson, for a reading and conversation moderated by the Library's Program and Events Coordinator, Zachary Bond. Named one of the Top 10 "Books We Love" by Fresh Air. In her review, Maureen Corrigan called this edition, a major expansion on previous editions, "probably the closest thing we’ll ever have to an intimate autobiography of Emily Dickinson."

Due to the weather, this program will happen inside the Peabody School gym. Please enter the gym through Door 8 on Haskell St. Put on your dancing shoes for an unforgettable workshop of hula hoop magic with Kat Suwalski! You will learn basic hooping moves while increasing hand-eye coordination, strength, balance, and agility. No prior hooping experience is required. Hoops are provided. Recommended for children ages 5 and up and their caregivers. Funding for Summer Reading has been generously provided by the City of Cambridge, Cambridge Public Library Foundation and Friends of the Cambridge Public Library.

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 how Americans have remembered and forgotten Washington’s involvement with slavery over the past 250 years. Three historians who work at the intersection of scholarship and public history will shed new light on our founding contradictions: Kelli Racine Barnes, ACE Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow and historian of 18th- and 19th-century U.S. history John Garrison Marks, author of Thy Will Be Done: George Washington’s Legacy of Slavery and the Fight for American Memory (forthcoming April 7, 2026) and Vice President of Research and Engagement at the American Association for State and Local History Kyera Singleton, Executive Director of the Royall House & Slave Quarters and Postdoctoral Fellow at the Tufts University Center for the Humanities This event will conclude with a book signing by John Garrison Marks. Copies of Thy Will Be Done: George Washington’s Legacy of Slavery and the Fight for American Memory will be available to purchase.

This program will be held at a later date to be determined. Need to get better at managing your money? Join the East Cambridge Savings Bank for a workshop on how to protect yourself from financial scams. Thank you to the East Cambridge Savings Bank for sponsoring this program. Registration helpful.

Is King Philip’s War really part of the past? Four Indigenous speakers tell us that it’s still deeply present. People who are not Indigenous often think of Metacom’s Resistance – more commonly known as King Philip’s War – if they know of it - as part of a distant past. If we have read children’s stories of an idealized colonial life, or educated with traditional textbooks, we might think of the war as a single violent chapter in an otherwise quaint, albeit colorful, history, with colonial heroes bravely conquering their enemies. Historical markers dotting the New England countryside, especially in Massachusetts, reinforce this idea: it was brutal, but the colonists emerged victorious, and in any event it was long ago – nothing to do with life today. For Indigenous communities, the past is not so easily left behind – and nor should it be for non-Indigenous people. We all live today with its aftermath. King Philip’s War continues to shape daily life, experience, and memory. Panelists include: Hartman Deetz, Mashpee Wampanoag Brad Lopes, Aquinnah Wampanoag Brittney Walley, Hassanamisco Nipmuc Elizabeth Solomon, Massachusett at Ponkapoag, moderator On the eve of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, this panel invites audiences to grapple with a foundational war of Indigenous resistance on its 350th anniversary - and to see that it is not past, but deeply present, for us all.

Join us as we celebrate the official acceptance of the Cambridge-Yerevan Sister City Association Records into the Cambridge Public Library’s Archives and Special Collections. Learn about the collection and three significant objects given by Yerevan to the city of Cambridge with guest speaker, Gary Lind-Sinanian, Collections Curator of the Armenian Museum of America. We’ll be treated to a selection of traditional Armenian music sung by a local student. A sampling of hors d’oeuvres and Eastern Armenian desserts will be served following the program.

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. Trace how diplomacy, collaboration, and conflict shaped the early republic through Washington’s relationships with Native people, featuring: Colin Gordon Calloway, author of The Indian World of George Washington: The First President, the First Americans, and the Birth of the Nation and the John Kimball, Jr. 1943 Professor of History and Professor of Native American Studies at Dartmouth College Kabl Wilkerson, enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation (Bourassa & Muller families; Bear Clan) and doctoral candidate in the History Department at Harvard University

In honor of Black History Month, join Opera on Tap Boston for Shakespeare of Harlem, a concert celebrating the life, work, and enduring influence of Langston Hughes. The program weaves Hughes’ poetry and prose with art songs by composers such as Margaret Bonds and Florence Price, alongside the voices of his contemporaries, including Georgia Douglas Johnson and Countee Cullen. An ensemble of celebrated local actor-singers brings the text and music to life, illuminating the ideas, experiences, and cultural moments that shaped Hughes as a writer. The performance will be followed by a talkback, offering audiences a chance to discuss with the artists and the material in conversation. Featuring: Morgan Beckford, Soprano Melynda Davis, Soprano Todd McNeel, Baritone Fred C. VanNess Jr., Tenor Producers: Nina Evelyn and Kathryn McKellar Registration is not required but preferred.

Harvard Book Store, the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, and the Cambridge Public Library welcome Kenneth Roth—former executive director of Human Rights Watch—for a discussion of his new book Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Front Lines Battling Abusive Governments. Registration is required.

Join Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui to celebrate the winners of the 2026 Cambridge City Nature Art Challenge and view their art on display. We will have food and nature art activities for all ages. This event is presented as a part of the Cambridge Public Library Nature Club.