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Inaugurated by the Commission in 1997, the Preservation Awards celebrate outstanding preservation projects that conserve and protect the historic built environment, provide skilled work to local designers and tradespeople, and support the environment, economy, institutions and housing stock of Cambridge.

Please note the different day of the week for this event due to Library closure on Tuesday November 11. 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 Pie by Sarah Weeks. When Alice's beloved and eccentric Aunt Polly passes away, her will reveals she has left her world-famous pie crust recipe to her fat grumpy cat, Lardo. And Lardo has been left to Alice! Everyone in town wants to be the next pie contest champion, and it's up to Alice and her friends to solve the mystery of the recipe and discover the not-so-secret recipe for happiness. Copies of this month's book are available at the Children's Desk. Both caregiver and child should read the book before the discussion to participate. Registration is required — only one registration is needed per family. For questions about parent/child book group, please email Rachel: rbeaton@cambridgema.gov

The City of Cambridge is seeking a proven leader who can inspire the confidence of the community and police officers as the city’s Police Commissioner. The successful candidate will have exceptional management skills and a proven record of implementing community-focused solutions to public safety problems, along with a demonstrated ability to interact in a positive and effective manner with a diverse community.

The Affordable Housing Trust has worked to shape housing programs and policies, fund the purchase of residential buildings and development sites for affordable housing developments, and provide funding that preserves and creates affordable housing for low- and moderate-income families in Cambridge. 

You’re invited to our January Brewery Book Club, where Lamplighter and the Cambridge Public Library team up to highlight contemporary works from marginalized voices while having a beer. We meet at Lamplighter Brewing Co., 284 Broadway, in the back taproom. This month we’ll read The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden. Copies of the book are available at the Main Library Q&A Desk. The e-book and digital audiobook can be borrowed through the Libby app. We’ll gather in the Lamplighter back taproom to discuss the book, what we learned from it, what we found ourselves touched by, and all other thoughts. Registration encouraged but not required. Visit Lamplighter Eventbrite page here.

Join the Cambridge Public Library in welcoming Elaine Castillo, author of How to Read Now and America Is Not the Heart, in celebrating the release of her newest novel, Moderation, published in August 2025. The recipient of starred reviews from Publisher's Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and Booklist—which called Moderation "a slyly brilliant narrative ... cleverly interrogating interactions, communication, and relationships"—the novel follows Girlie Delmundo, a social media content moderator falling in love with her boss while her career veers into an increasingly virtual realm, raising pertinent questions about the future of love. After reading from Moderation, Elaine with sit in conversation with writer and editor Meagan Masterman for a wide-ranging conversation followed by an audience Q&A and book signing. This is a hybrid event and registration is required.

On Tuesday, July 22, 2025, leaders from the City of Cambridge and the Commonwealth gathered with nonprofit Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH) to mark the beginning of renovations at the former Sacred Heart church rectory and school in East Cambridge. By the end of 2027, POAH plans to complete construction on the property, which will create 46 new permanently affordable apartment homes.

In accordance with the City of Cambridge Welcoming Community Ordinance Reporting Guidelines (section 2.129.060), the Cambridge Police Department has published data on interactions with Immigration & Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) for the six-month period spanning from August 2025 to February 2026.

This self-guided Walking Tour highlights the dynamic history of feminist-owned businesses and organizations that emerged and thrived in Cambridge from the 1970s to the 1990s as the women’s movement sparked across the United States. Learn more about the enormous contributions women made locally to the vibrancy of the city and the movement for women’s liberation.

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.