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Join Marni Blank, founder of Begin with the End, for a three-part series designed to give solo agers and those preparing for that possibility the practical tools, emotional support, and community connection they need to plan with confidence. Session 1 (September 17): Building Your Support System Who shows up when life changes? Take an honest look at your current support circle, identify gaps, and understand why the right people in the right roles matters more than we think. Session 2 (October 1): Practical Tools for Planning Ahead This session walks through what documents, decisions and systems to have in place, how to choose the right support and how to organize your financial and digital life so someone can step in if needed. Session 3 (October 15): Taking Action: Mindset, Legacy, and Making it Stick Here we'll address the emotional barriers that keep us stuck, reframing planning as something we do for ourselves and not a sign of decline. This is a virtual presentation, and a link will be provided one hour before each program. Presented in partnership with Cambridge Neighbors.

Join Marni Blank, founder of Begin with the End, for a three-part series designed to give solo agers and those preparing for that possibility the practical tools, emotional support, and community connection they need to plan with confidence. Session 1 (September 17): Building Your Support System Who shows up when life changes? Take an honest look at your current support circle, identify gaps, and understand why the right people in the right roles matters more than we think. Session 2 (October 1): Practical Tools for Planning Ahead This session walks through what documents, decisions and systems to have in place, how to choose the right support and how to organize your financial and digital life so someone can step in if needed. Session 3 (October 15): Taking Action: Mindset, Legacy, and Making it Stick Here we'll address the emotional barriers that keep us stuck, reframing planning as something we do for ourselves and not a sign of decline. This is a virtual presentation and a link will be provided one hour before each program. Presented in partnership with Cambridge Neighbors.

Join Marni Blank, founder of Begin with the End, for a three-part series designed to give solo agers and those preparing for that possibility the practical tools, emotional support, and community connection they need to plan with confidence. Session 1 (September 17): Building Your Support System Who shows up when life changes? Take an honest look at your current support circle, identify gaps, and understand why the right people in the right roles matters more than we think. Session 2 (October 1): Practical Tools for Planning Ahead This session walks through what documents, decisions and systems to have in place, how to choose the right support and how to organize your financial and digital life so someone can step in if needed. Session 3 (October 15): Taking Action: Mindset, Legacy, and Making it Stick Here we'll address the emotional barriers that keep us stuck, reframing planning as something we do for ourselves and not a sign of decline. This is a virtual presentation and a link will be provided one hour before each program. Presented in partnership with Cambridge Neighbors.

Collaborate on a biodiversity banner to celebrate Moth Week with a sewing circle on July 11 and July 18. Wildlife Arts invites the community to hand sew blocks for a multi-moth fabric banner! We'll teach beginning sewers, and children old enough to handle a needle may work on caterpillar blocks (recommended for age 10 and up). You'll learn about moth biodiversity in Massachusetts and help publicize the humble and little-known world of moths. The banner will be displayed at the Cambridge Moth Ball on July 22 at Fresh Pond Reservation and will be available in the Wildlife Arts banner lending library when complete. All materials will be provided. Registration is suggested. You may attend one or both sessions. 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.

Collaborate on a biodiversity banner to celebrate Moth Week with a sewing circle on July 11 and July 18. Wildlife Arts invites the community to hand sew blocks for a multi-moth fabric banner! We'll teach beginning sewers, and children old enough to handle a needle may work on caterpillar blocks (recommended for age 10 and up). You'll learn about moth biodiversity in Massachusetts and help publicize the humble and little-known world of moths. The banner will be displayed at the Cambridge Moth Ball on July 22 at Fresh Pond Reservation and will be available in the Wildlife Arts banner lending library when complete. All materials will be provided. Registration is suggested. You may attend one or both sessions. 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.

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.

Just a Start (JAS) will be building two new buildings at 430-432 Rindge Avenue in North Cambridge. This two-phased project, called Rindge Commons, will create 101 affordable apartments. All units will be affordable to households earning under 80% AMI, with some being more deeply affordable. Additionally, JAS's development will provide community-wide benefits by addressing climate change mitigation and sustainability goals and enhancing the experience of pedestrians and cyclists along Alewife Brook Parkway and Rindge Avenue. The first phase, Rindge Commons North, will include 24 affordable one- and two-bedroom rental units, as well several floors of non-residential where JAS will be consolidating its training and education programs into a centralized location. The City will also be leasing space to create three Pre-Kindergarten classrooms for children between ages three and five years old, providing much needed affordable early education for Cambridge’s working families. Rindge Commons North is located just steps away from the Alewife T-Station, and shares a site with JAS’s Rindge Tower Apartments. The second phase of Rindge Commons will begin once Rindge Commons North is complete and will contain 77 affordable family-sized units.

Website + Constant Contact: Marketing Underway for New Affordable Housing at 52 New Street Apartments – Information Sessions on April 28 Just A Start (JAS) is holding a second lottery for up to 20 of its one- and two-bedroom affordable housing rental units at 52 New Street in Cambridge and to fill the waiting list for units as they become available. Supported with funding from the City of Cambridge and Cambridge Affordable Housing Trust, 52 New Street was the first development to be approved under the Affordable Housing Overlay. Construction is complete. Residents selected in this round will begin moving in by late June to July 2026. Applications for the remaining units are now available until May 20 at 3 p.m. Please visit here to complete the application online. JAS will be hosting an information session on April 28 at 1 p.m. online. Please visit www.52NewStreetApartments.com to register for the information session. A lottery will be held on May 22 at 3 p.m. via Teams. Attendance is not required. For more information on 52 New Street, please visit JAS’s project page at: https://justastart.org/52-new-street/. For more information about the application process and the upcoming information session, please click on the flyer here or email 52NewStreet@Wingatecompanies.com.

Join us for a lively discussion of a great book in person at the Main Library! Snacks will be provided. For ages 7-10 and a parent or caregiver. This month's book is The Very, Very Far North by Dan Bar-el, a gentle story about animal friendships. In the Very, Very Far North, past the Cold, Cold Ocean and just below the hill that looks like a baby whale, you'll find Duane and his friends. Duane is a sweet and curious young bear who makes friends with everyone he meets--whether they're bossy, like Major Puff the puffin, or a bit vain, like Handsome the musk ox, or very, very shy, like Boo the caribou. For these arctic friends, every day is a new adventure! Both caregiver and child should read the book before the discussion to participate. Registration is required — only one registration is needed per family. For a copy of the book, stop by the Children’s Room after you've registered. If we run out of books at the desk, you can place a hold on the book by clicking on the book title in the paragraph above. For questions about parent/child book group, please email Meagan: malbright@cambridgema.gov

In honor of Save a Life Day and Recovery Month, please join us on Thursday, September 24th from 6-8pm to volunteer to put together overdose prevention kits at the Cambridge Public Library, Main Branch. The You Can initiative (youcan.info) addresses overdose deaths by increasing access to lifesaving skills and resources statewide. Volunteers play a crucial role in this program by assembling the kits that are then mailed out across the state, getting lifesaving resources out to people and families who need them, free of cost. Each kit contains naloxone, fentanyl test strips, and other vital resources. Recovery Month, observed each September, affirms that recovery from substance use and mental health challenges is possible, and shows the city's support for every Cambridge community member in all stages of their recovery journeys. Save a Life Day is a nationwide day of action that promotes year-round widespread naloxone access as one solution to the overdose crisis. Volunteers will be able to leave with a completed kit, if desired. Representatives from the Cambridge Health Department will also be onsite to provide additional resources and support. This program is a partnership between the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and Health Resources in Action (HRiA) and hosted by the Cambridge Public Health Department and Cambridge Public Library.