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Join us for an hour of drumming with Ammaya Dance and Drum to celebrate Juneteenth! This event is recommended for children ages 5 and up and their caregivers. In the event of inclement weather, the drum circle will move to the Curious George Room. Due to rain, this program will be in the Curious George Room.

In 2009, the City set a goal to reduce residential trash disposal by 30% by 2020, and by 80% by 2050. With that goal in mind, the City expanded curbside food waste pickup to all buildings with 1 to 12 units. 25,000 households (8,100 buildings) are now eligible to participate.

Our monthly Middle Grade Mystery book group is for kids aged 10-14. Check out a copy of the book beforehand, or download it from the Libby app. Our October book is Return to Howliday Inn by James Howe. This book group will meet virtually and in person at the O'Connell Branch. Please register below if you would like to attend virtually. A Zoom link will be sent to all registered participants one hour before the event. Need a laptop or hotspot to participate? Call the O'Connell Branch at 617-349-4019. For questions about the Middle Grade Mystery Book Group, please email cmeisler@cambridgema.gov.

The Cambridge Public Health Department is hosting free flu and COVID-19 vaccine clinics for the Cambridge community, and partnering with VaxAbilities on two clinics (Oct. 19 and Nov. 16) with extra staff to provide skilled support to people with disabilities and/or sensory support needs.

Natural hazard mitigation planning is the process of figuring out how to reduce or eliminate the loss of life and property damage resulting from natural hazards such as floods, earthquakes, and hurricanes.

This month's book: Ordinary Notes by Christina Sharpe Reading Interests: The group concentrates on fiction and narrative nonfiction. Some past selections include: Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell, Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters, and Beautiful Country: A Memoir by Qian Julie Wang. 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 through OverDrive or the Libby app. The digital audiobook is available through Hoopla. How to register: Click the registration link below to register. Registration is encouraged but not required. For more information, contact Brita (bzitin@cambridgema.gov).

Join us in the Lewis Room at the Central Square Branch for an introduction to mindfulness meditation followed by a guided practice session with instructor Zeenat. If you are curious or would just like to be in community, stop on by! Registration is required to attend this event! Biography: Zeenat Potia teaches meditation in Buddhist and secular spaces, and has taught at the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center since 2014. She practices vipassana at CIMC and the Insight Meditation Society, and has over 15 years of meditation training, including extensive silent retreat experience in the Early Buddhist tradition. Zeenat is committed to healing and recovery through trauma-sensitive mindfulness. She is an instructor for Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare’s Mind the Moment program and works directly with corporations, non-profit organizations and universities in the delivery of secular mindfulness programs. Learn more at: www.zeenatpotia.com

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.

Are you or a loved one experiencing changes in vision? Isabel Rosario, Outreach Specialist, will discuss how to recognize the signs of vision loss, questions to ask your eye doctor, tips on staying independent and safe, and local resources and support. Registration is requested, but not required.

Class will be held at Saint James Church, 1991 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02140 due to repairs to the O'Neill Branch Library. Join us for an English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Class. This class will be taught at an intermediate level. No testing is needed.