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This month's book: The Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson Audience: Adults who enjoy reading true crime. How to get the print book: Copies of the print book are set aside at the Main Library. Visit the Main Library Q&A Desk 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 the Libby app. How to register: Click the registration link below to register. We'll meet in the Rossi Room on the first floor of the Main Library. For more information, contact Amie at alemire@cambridgema.gov.

Join the Cambridge Public Library for a screening of The Next Dream, an independent documentary about more than one million Temporary Protected Status (TPS) families across the U.S., who are at risk of deportation and family separation. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion and Q&A with members of the National TPS Alliance and the film's producers. Come and meet members of the TPS families, learn about their struggles, and discuss how we may support our neighbors across the country. To learn more about this project, please click here. Registration is encouraged, but not required.

The City of Cambridge announced that all City-sponsored community events, events permitted for the use of City parks, or other City-sponsored public gatherings will be cancelled through October 26, 2020, or postponed to a later date. All prior approvals for events or gatherings are revoked. The City Manager’s Office is collaborating with the City’s COVID-19 Expert Advisory Panel, the Commissioner of Public Health, and the Cambridge Public Health Department to evaluate and determine what Halloween activities will be allowed in the City. Further guidance on Halloween activities in the City to be announced the week of October 12.

Learn how to create beautiful and colorful acrylic paintings! In this class you will be introduced to painting with acrylic, including techniques in color mixing, observational painting, and composition. At your own pace you will learn how to paint still lifes using acrylic paint in a relaxed and welcoming environment. This class will cover wet on wet and wet and dry brush techniques, sgraffito/combing, overlays/glazing, gel mediums, pattern making, and masking. You will come away from this class with beautiful paintings of your own and a greater understanding and appreciation for the medium of acrylic painting. This class is suitable for beginners and can be adjusted for all levels of experience. Registration is Required.

Join us for a conversation about community, resilience, and activism in the Latinx community with Gladys Vega, the Executive Director of La Collaborativa in Chelsea. Gladys Vega is a groundbreaking community organizer and advocate, working relentlessly and fearlessly to ensure the Latinx immigrant community has a voice in determining how it’s needs and concerns are addressed. She believes that empowerment of the individual leads to empowerment of the community and that social action is the vehicle an empowered community can use to achieve its goals. Gladys is the architect of nearly all of La Colaborativa’s programs, initiatives, and community organizing campaigns. Her leadership has resulted in expanded rights for immigrants, low-income families, tenants, workers, youths, and people of color across Massachusetts.

Celebrate Pride and the beauty of self-expression through color and craft! In in this inclusive, hands-on workshop led by local fiber artist Alex Makes Art, we'll come together as a community to design a rainbow spectrum of felted Pride banners; wearable or hangable pendants created through the vibrant technique of felt painting. Using beautifully dyed wool in a range of hues, you'll learn how to blend colors, add texture, and craft a soft, powerful symbol of identity, allyship, and joy. No experience is necessary - just bring your creativity and pride! This is a welcoming space for all ages, all identities, and all expressions. Let's make something meaningful together with Alex Makes Art at the heart of the experience. Free & open to everyone. All materials provided. Registration required.

Join us for a discussion with 5 Black men working restoratively in different contexts: at home with family, through meditation and yoga, on the sports field, in business, and in the courts providing health and mental wellness. How and why have these men chosen to create a Restorative climate inside institutions that have a history of violence against Black men and what tools are they using to keep the fire for this practice alive outside of the Talking Circle? Panelists include Sam Williams, a yogi, professor and healer; Damon Banks, a Social Worker and Chief Probation Officer; Omo Moses, the CEO of Math Talk and the author of The White Peril; Herman Banks, an educator and consultant; and Vinson Givans, a mitigation manager and football coach. The conversation will be moderated by Indi Wit The Tea, a journalist and media personality. This event is cosponsored by Cambridge Public Library.

Join us for a special MA Space Week 2025 Space Film Festival screening of Contact, followed by an expert panel discussion exploring the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, interstellar communication, and the intersection of science and policy. About the MA Space Week Space Film Festival The MA Space Week Space Film Festival is a statewide celebration of space in cinema, featuring films that highlight the wonders of space exploration, astronomy, and our place in the universe. Each screening is paired with expert insights, making space science accessible and engaging for all audiences. This year’s Massachusetts Space Week theme, "Life in the Universe", explores humanity’s search for extraterrestrial life. Contact, based on Carl Sagan’s novel, is the perfect film to spark this discussion.

Join Tessa Bachi Haas, ICA/Boston Assistant Curator, for a deep dive into Stanley Whitney: How High the Moon, the first retrospective to trace the evolution of Stanley Whitney’s unique and powerful abstractions. In this talk, discover how Whitney developed his iconic gridded format and explore 50 years of powerful, color-saturated painting. Stanley Whitney: How High the Moon is on view at ICA/Boston now through September 1, 2025. The exhibition organized by the Buffalo AKG Art Museum and curated by Cathleen Chaffee, Charles Balbach Chief Curator, Buffalo AKG Art Museum. The ICA/Boston’s presentation is organized by Ruth Erickson, Barbara Lee Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs, with Tessa Bachi Haas, Assistant Curator. This is a hybrid event. A Zoom link will be sent to all registered participants 1 hour before the event. Registration is not required for in-person attendance. Photo by Mel Taing: Installation view, Stanley Whitney: How High the Moon, ICA/Boston, 2025. © Stanley Whitney

March selection: Wellness: A Novel by Nathan Hill Reading Interests: We read mostly contemporary Fiction and Non-Fiction, with forays into older works and classics. Past selections include: The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt and The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. How to get the print book: Copies of the book are set aside at the O'Connell Branch. Visit during open hours and a staff member can help you check out a copy. Click here for O'Connell Branch Hours How to get the e-book or digital audiobook: This month’s book is available as a digital audio and e-book through Hoopla. This book group meets in person at the O'Connell Branch. No registration is needed. Drop-ins welcome. For more information contact the branch at 617-349-4019. The City of Cambridge does not discriminate, including on the basis of disability. We may provide auxiliary aids and services, written materials in alternative formats, and reasonable modifications in policies and procedures to people with disabilities. For more information contact us at library@cambridgema.gov, 617-349-4032 (voice), or via relay at 711.