CPL Presents: The 2nd Annual Festive Fanfare with Boston Festival Orchestra (Main)
Back by popular demand!
Join musicians of the Boston Festival Orchestra for "Festive Fanfare," a fun, family-friendly celebration of the season's joy and warmth at the Cambridge Public Library! Featuring violinist Jae Cosmos Lee and cellist Aron Zelkowicz, this festive concert will fill the air with beloved holiday classics, heartwarming melodies, and jubilant fanfares. Perfect for audiences of all ages, this free event celebrates holiday cheer and musical splendor! Light refreshments and treats will be provided.
Registration is not required but preferred.
This concert is cosponsored by the Friends of the Cambridge Public Library.
CPL Presents: Kristen Arnett, Author of STOP ME IF YOU'VE HEARD THIS ONE (Main/Virtual)
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.
Community, Resilience, and Activism in the Latinx Community with Gladys Vega (Main)
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.
Our Path Forward Lecture: Rachel Slade, author of Making It in America (Main/Virtual)
Join the Cambridge Public Library in welcoming Rachel Slade, author of Making It in America: The Almost Impossible Quest to Manufacture in the U.S.A. (And How It Got That Way)—as well as the national bestseller, Into the Raging Sea—for the latest installment of the Our Path Forward Lecture Series. Slade's book, which follows a young couple in Maine trying to kickstart a lost industry, was named a Publishers Weekly "Top 10 Pick in Business and Economics." Cosmopolitan called Making It in America an "enlightening look at the history of manufacturing in America and how we got to where we are today." After the lecture, Slade will sit in conversation with Janelle Nanos, a business enterprise reporter at The Boston Globe and a finalist for a 2023 Pulitzer Prize, after which she will answer questions from the audience. Registration is required.
Danehy Park Environmental Monitoring and Reporting
Danehy Park is the site of a former landfill (see History section for more details). Since the landfill was capped in 1990, the management of the site is controlled by permitting through the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP), Division of Solid Waste. The goal is to ensure that the site is managed in a safe manner and that landfill gases are properly managed and allowed to vent safely. To that end, the City contracts with CDM Smith to conduct quarterly monitoring, inspect the methane trench (which is the stone-filled trench around the perimeter of the park) annually, and develop an annual environmental monitoring report that is submitted to MassDEP.
Washington Remembered, Washington Forgotten: Washington and Slavery (Main/Virtual)
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.
Half Crown-Marsh NCD Public Meeting
Notice is hereby given that the Commission will hold a Public Meeting on Tuesday, October 15, 2024 at 6:00 PM to consider the following matters under Ch. 2.78, Article III of the City Code and the Order establishing the Commission. The meeting will be held online with remote participation only. The public may participate online via the Zoom platform (https://zoom.us/) from a phone, tablet, or computer. Register at https://tinyurl.com/HCMOct2024 or call (301)715-8592. Webinar ID: 859 6940 9390
1. HCM-660: 1001 Memorial Drive, by Herbert Rothfarb: Erect wooden fence and add new retaining wall base at sidewalk. Continued from August hearing.
2. Minutes
Sewing Circle
Continue building your machine-sewing skills AND receive support as you work on your own sewing projects with our Library sewing community. Participants must register but may drop-in any time during the program.
This program is designed for patrons who know the basics of how to use our Janome sewing machines.
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.
Read to a Dog (Valente)
Read to Dante, our local cuddly therapy dog! Trained therapy dogs provide warm and non-judgmental reading companions for new or experienced readers up to age 14. Registration for each 15-minute time slot is required and begins on Wednesday, January 22 by calling or visiting the Valente Branch (617-349-4015).
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
Read to a Dog (Valente)
Read to Dante, our local cuddly therapy dog! Trained therapy dogs provide warm and non-judgmental reading companions for new or experienced readers up to age 14. Registration for each 15-minute time slot is required and begins on Wednesday, April 16 by calling or visiting the Valente Branch (617-349-4015).
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