It’s the season again — Fall!

Storytelling time in Stony Creek.

Sponsored by the Friends of the Willoughby Wallace Memorial Library

Friday, November 1, 2024, 7 pm

at the Willoughby Wallace Memorial Library

Please call to register — 203/488/8702

Stories / live music / wine & cheese / good fun

Featuring Stony Creek’s richness of storytelling talent + live music by The Appalachian Routes

What this is:

Our annual storytelling evening — inspired by The Moth — is a lovely community gathering, relaxed, festive, filled with laughter, sometimes tears. The storytellers are friends and neighbors with wonderful, funny, sad, surprising stories to tell. There’s marvelous live music performed by local musicians. And there’s wine and cheese and cookies. Flowers and candles. All are welcome. But we do ask that you call and register as seating is limited.

What are the guidelines for storytelling:

• Your story is true, is yours to tell, and relates to this year’s theme — Lost & Found — however you interpret it.

• The story is told, not read. So no reading from a script or any notes! You speak for up to 7 minutes.

• Remember the story arc. A beginning, middle, and end. Something happens, something changes.

• Our inspiration being The Moth — PLEASE check out their guidelines here: Storytelling Tips & Tricks.

For questions etc —

contact Rabia: rali@wwml.org / 203.488.8702

Reading / Conversation / Booksigning

An Author Event

The Age of Loneliness: Essays by Laura Marris

Greywolf Press, 2024

Filled with equal parts alienation and wonder, each essay immerses readers in a different strange landscape of the Eremocene. Among them are the Buffalo airport with its snowy owls and the purgatories of commuter flights, layovers, and long-distance relationships; a life-size model city built solely for self-driving cars; the coasts of New England and the ever-evolving relationship between humans and horseshoe crabs; and the Connecticut woods Marris revisits for the first time after her father’s death, where she participates in the annual Christmas Bird Count and encounters presence and absence in turn.

Vivid, keenly observed, and driven by a lively and lyrical voice, The Age of Loneliness is a moving examination of the dangers of loneliness, the surprising histories of ecological loss, and the ways that community science—which relies on the embodied evidence of “ground truth”—can help us recognize, and maybe even recover, what we’ve learned to live without.

“The Age of Loneliness is a gorgeous, poignant guide to finding one another in a time of loss.”

— Michelle Nijhuis

“The Age of Loneliness calls to us from our era of extinction like a bird we thought we had lost. Laura Marris is a prophet whose patient song calls us to attention, to mercy, and finally, to each other.”

—Tomás Q. Morín

“These are essays of exquisite beauty. The Age of Loneliness is an exploration of landscapes, interior and exterior, and the ways they become imprinted with both wounding and healing. As Marris reckons with the loneliness of late capitalism, what emerges is a work of love and connection.”

—Kathryn Savage

LAURA MARRIS is a writer and translator. Her writing has appeared in The Believer, The Yale Review, The Paris Review Daily, The Common, The TLS, The New York Times, Words Without Borders, and elsewhere.

Her translations include Albert Camus’s The Plague (Knopf). With Alice Kaplan, she is also the co-author of a book of criticism about the novel called States of Plague: Reading Albert Camus in a Pandemic (University of Chicago Press, with a French edition translated by Patrick Hersant for Gallimard). She has translated Louis Guilloux's Blood Dark (New York Review Books), Paol Keineg's Triste Tristan and Other Poems (with Rosmarie Waldrop for Burning Deck Press), Geraldine Schwarz’s Those Who Forget (Scribner), Jean-Yves Frétigné’s To Live is to Resist: The Life of Antonio Gramsci (University of Chicago Press), Christophe Boltanski’s The Safe House (University of Chicago Press), as well as a Proust comic book and experimental translation projects for Asymptote and The Brooklyn Rail. Books she has translated have been shortlisted for the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize, the Scott Moncrieff Prize, the Mark Lynton History Prize from the Lukas Prizes, and the French-American Foundation Translation Prize.

She is a Visiting Assistant Professor of creative writing at the University at Buffalo and a Teaching Artist at Just Buffalo Literary Center.

A special event on the history and renovation of the “Dome in the Woods,” presented by Sara Kirschenbaum, Ben Posel, and Joseph Shea. Please register.

WILLOUGHBY BOOK TALK

&

FILM DISCUSSION

WOMEN TALKING

BOOK BY MIRIAM TOWES (2019)

FILM BY SARAH POLLEY (2022)

Hosted by Rabia

The internationally bestselling novel based on real events—published in 2018 by Miriam Toews, the award-winning author of All My Puny Sorrows and A Complicated Kindness.

Named Best Book of The Year by The New York Times.
Now a major motion picture, adapted and directed by Sarah Polley.

For several years, girls and women in the remote Mennonite colony of Molotschna have reported assaults in the night by what some in the community claim are ghosts or demons. Others blame “wild female imagination”—until several of the men behind the attacks are discovered and apprehended. While the men of the colony go into town to bail out the accused, the women meet secretly in a hayloft to determine how to respond. They have just two days to decide what to do before the men return. Acerbic, funny, tender and wise, acclaimed author Miriam Toews’s spellbinding seventh novel contains a universe of revelatory thinking about gender, justice, freedom and power.

REVIEWS

... scorching ... Women Talking is a wry, freewheeling novel of ideas that touches on the nature of evil, questions of free will, collective responsibility, cultural determinism and, above all, forgiveness ... The New York Times Book Review

the novel ends on a note of terrifying hope so pure and desperate and idealistic that it’s almost unbearable. The humility of the novel’s title belies the extraordinary ambition of its characters, who, reeling from trauma, sit, talk, and chart out a future within two days. The New York Review of Books.

It must have taken guts to write this novel… The improbable, almost magical result creates something redemptive from a subject that seems anything but. The Guardian

MIRIAM TOEWS is the author of seven bestselling novels: Women Talking, All My Puny Sorrows, Irma Voth, The Flying Troutmans, A Complicated Kindness, A Boy of Good Breeding, and Summer of My Amazing Luck, and one work of non-fiction, Swing Low: A Life. She is a winner of the Governor General’s Award for Fiction, the Libris Award for Fiction Book of the Year, the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and the Writers Trust Marian Engel/Timothy Findley Award. She lives in Toronto.

SARAH POLLEY is the Academy Award-winning filmmaker of Women Talking. After making short films, Polley made her feature-length directorial debut with the drama film Away from Her in 2006. Polley received an Oscar nomination for the screenplay, which she adapted from the Alice Munro story “The Bear Came Over the Mountain.” Her other projects include the documentary film Stories We Tell (2012), which won the New York Film Critics Circle prize and the National Board of Review award for best documentary; the Netflix miniseries adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s novel Alias Grace (2017); and the romantic comedy Take This Waltz (2011). Polley began her acting career as a child, starring in many productions for film and television. Her first book, Run Towards the Danger, was a #1 bestseller and winner of the 2022 Toronto Book Awards.

Women Talking is a 2022 film written and directed by Sarah Polley, based on the 2019 novel by Miriam Toews. It features an ensemble cast that includes Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Judith Ivey, Ben Whishaw, and Frances McDormand. The film premiered at the 49th Telluride Film Festival and was named one of the top ten films of 2022 by the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute. It won Best Adapted Screenplay at the 28th Critics' Choice Awards, 75th Writers Guild of America Awards, and the 95th Academy Awards, where it was also nominated for Best Picture.

“…superbly inventive adaptation begins with a declaration: ‘What follows is an act of female imagination.’” The Guardian

“a timely political parable with a stellar ensemble cast..” The New York Times.

COPIES OF THE BOOK & THE FILM AVAILABLE AT THE LIBRARY.

CALL TO REGISTER: 203.488.8702

The Matthew McLean Jazz Quartet, featuring some of Connecticut’s finest jazz musicians, delivers a vibrant blend of classic jazz standards and innovative original compositions. Led by McLean on the tenor saxophone, the quartet's sound is deeply rooted in the rich traditions of legendary jazz icons such as Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane. Each performance encapsulates the essence of these musical giants, offering audiences a dynamic and soulful jazz experience.

Nowhere Special
Starring James Norton and Daniel Lamont

Director & Writer Uberto Pasolini

Not rated
Drama, 1hr 36m

Inspired by true events, "Nowhere Special" features James Norton ("Happy Valley", "Mr Jones", "Little Women") as thirty-five-year-old window cleaner John, who has dedicated his life to bringing up his son, after the child's mother left them soon after giving birth. When John is given only a few months to live, he attempts to find a new, perfect family for his three-year-old son, determined to shield him from the terrible reality of the situation.

An afternoon of discovery with world famous sculptor Gar Waterman and Branford Poet Laureate Judith Liebmann. Open to all ages.

Mr. Waterman’s beautiful sculptures of the the Nudibranch will be on show. His presentation on the fascinating marine creatures — how he came to discover them, what they are, and why he creates sculptures of them — may well inspire you to try your hand at poetry under the guidance of Branford’s Poet Laureate Judith Liebmann. Prepared to be surprised!

Gar Waterman’s sculpture explores organic form.  A combination of observation of natural phenomena, sensual devotion to the tactile possibilities of material, and a model maker's tinkering sensibility inform his work. He grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, with a formative year in Tahiti at the age of 9 to 10, where his father, pioneer underwater film maker Stan Waterman, documented the adventure in a National Geographic Special. Waterman’s daily contact was with the exotic flora of the Polynesian landscape and the barrier reefs of the South Pacific, with their hydrodynamic fish, rays, sharks, and corals. After college at Dartmouth, Waterman moved to Pietrasanta, Italy, where he lived for seven years and learned to carve stone. A foundation of ocean imagery experienced first hand over a lifetime of diving infuses his sculpture with marine forms, from fish, nudibranchs, and squid to the spiral perfection of shells.

For more information visit his website here.

Judith K. Liebmann is a poet, fiction writer, and literary scholar. Her work has been published in numerous literary journals, as well as in The New York Times and Scientific American, and has been anthologized in the short story collection The Safe Deposit Box. A collection of poems, Ekphrasis”, was published in December 2023. Judith has a Ph.D. in Literature from Yale University and was the Director of the Writing Program at the Center for Independent Study. She has served on the Advisory Board of the Connecticut Commission on the Arts and has conducted writing workshops at middle schools, high schools, and universities throughout the country. In January 2024, she was inaugurated as the first Poet Laureate of the Town of Branford.

For more information, click here.

EVENT CANCELLED.

A Film Discussion Lead by Rhea Hirshman

Film screening at 6 pm, followed by discussion at 7 pm.

You can also stream the documentary online on Concentric Media free prior to the event and join the discussion at the library at 7 pm.

From Danger to Dignity (1995)

A documentary film directed by Dorothy Fadiman, Concentric Media.

Until the mid-1800s, abortion was regularly practiced in the United States. But, by the turn of the 20th century, it had become illegal nationwide. While activists fought within existing systems to legalize the procedure, doctors, nurses, clergy, and ordinary women established underground networks to help women find safe abortions outside the law. Using rare archival footage, FROM DANGER TO DIGNITY weaves together the stories of those who worked — often at great risk to themselves — to remove the stigma that surrounded abortion and, in doing so, to save women’s lives.

RHEA HIRSHMAN, a freelance writer and editor, has taught women’s and gender studies for three decades at UConn Stamford and has been a visiting instructor at Yale and Wesleyan. Deeply involved in women’s liberation activities including community education, reproductive rights advocacy, and the arts, she was recognized for her contributions by the Connecticut chapter of Veteran Feminists of America.  

Willoughby Writers Group

New Season

Exploratory Session

Calling local writers!

We’re starting our new season at the library. If you’re interested in a friendly, supportive place to meet to share your work, get feedback, or want just to talk about the writing life, do register for our exploratory session September 25. We’re getting together for a discussion on how to shape this group. Share expectations, ideas, experience. Tea and cookies always on offer!

State law: Children under 12 MUST be accompanied by an adult. No exceptions.

About Adrienne:
Born and raised in Nelson, New Zealand Adrienne was born into a musical family. Some of her earliest influences started when she was just four, listening to her dad as he practiced and performed on the organ. After discovering Oscar Peterson at the age of 13 Adrienne knew she was destined and determined to be a great jazz musician. Adrienne acquired her first organ in 2003 when she imported a Hammond C3 from Canada and with very few jazz organ players in her country, she taught herself to play by listening to recordings by Jimmy Smith, Joey DeFrancesco, Groove Holmes and Jack McDuff. Adrienne graduated Massey Conservatorium of Music in Wellington with a degree in jazz voice in 2004. She spent the next four years performing throughout New Zealand and Australia in clubs and festivals in the swing band The Vipers.

Adrienne relocated to the USA in 2008. During that year spent in the Midwest, performing at Hammond organ summits, jazz clubs and jam sessions in Cincinnati, Detroit, Dayton and Columbus, Adrienne further developed her sound on the bandstand. Now based in New York, Adrienne actively performs throughout the city including a weekly residency at Marcus Samuelsson’s iconic Red Rooster in Harlem.

In April of 2016 Adrienne self-released her first instrumental album ‘Mo’ Puddin’. The record quickly made it’s way up to the number 4 position in the CMJ Jazz Charts, USA. Recorded in NYC with master musicians Peter Bernstein and Willie Jones III this album is an original spin on the rich tradition of the B3, guitar, drums trio. The tracks on Mo’ Puddin’ have been carefully crafted and feature three B3 classic covers and six of her original compositions, each with their own flavor, audacity and infectious groove.

Adrienne followed up her instrumental release with another impressive recording ‘Blues Jam.’ What sets Blues Jam apart from other albums is the unique combination of a female led organ/vocal trio. Blues Jam is a showcase of Adrienne’s captivating vocals combined with the propulsive energy of an organ trio. The blend of Marvin Horne’s virtuosity on guitar and Brian Floody’s dynamic drumming, locking in with Adrienne’s left hand bass and innovative bluesy soling has come together to create refreshing new versions of songs in the spirit of BB King, Ray Charles and Billie Holiday.

Adrienne has shared the stage with Ronnie Cuber, Marvin Horne, Sherrie Maricle and and headlined at jazz clubs including Cliff Bells (Detroit), The Blue Wisp (Cincinnati, OH) and Jazz Central (Dayton, Oh), Night Town (Cleveland, OH) and performed in New York clubs including Minton’s, BB Kings, The Garage and Showman’s.

Adrienne has albums released on HMV in Japan, EQ music in Singapore, Ode Records in New Zealand and three self released albums in the USA.

New Season Begins In the Fall

Prelude: A Talk By Amy Bloom

On writing and reading, for writers and readers

conversation, Q&A, wine and cheese…

1. September 11, 2024 at 7 pm.

   Willoughby Writers Groups returns in the Fall with a conversation with writer-in residence Amy Bloom. Her talk on Writing and Reading, for Writers and Readers will be followed by a q-&-a, an informal exchange, with attending writers. If you’d like to come, please call the library to register. 203-488-8702.

2. September 25, 2024 at 6.30 pm.

   Exploratory Session to discuss the parameters of the writers group. If you’re interested in attending, call the library to sign up. 

   Note. The Willoughby Writers Group is open to local writers — published, unpublished, emerging, aspiring — who are seeking a welcoming space to share their work, and to receive and provide feedback. The details on the goals and structure of the group to be finalized in our exploratory session with participating writers on September 25.

   For more information, call Rabia or Thia at 203-488-8703.

A special, in person, Author Event

Call to register. Copies of the book will be available. For information, call Rabia: 203-488-8702

ABOUT BETWEEN TWO MOONS

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 CAROL SHIELDS PRIZE FOR FICTION AND THE NEW AMERICAN VOICES AWARD • A BOOKLIST BEST BOOK OF 2023 • Set in the Arab immigrant enclave of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, following three siblings coming of age over the course of one Ramadan, “a moving look at family, survival, and celebration” (Hanif Abdurraqib, author of A Little Devil in America).

“A gorgeously written and profoundly intimate debut.” —Etaf Rum, author of New York Times bestseller A Woman Is No Man

It’s the holy month of Ramadan, and twin sisters Amira and Lina are about to graduate high school in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. On the precipice of adulthood, they plan to embark on a summer of teenage revelry, trying on new identities and testing the limits of what they can get away with while still under their parents’ roof. But the twins’ expectations of a summer of freedom collide with their older brother’s return from prison, whose mysterious behavior threatens to undo the delicate family balance.

Meanwhile, outside the family’s apartment, a storm is brewing in Bay Ridge. A raid on a local business sparks a protest that brings the Arab community together, and a senseless act of violence threatens to tear them apart. Everyone’s motives are called into question as an alarming sense of disquiet pervades the neighborhood. With everything spiraling out of control, how will Amira and Lina know who they can trust?

A gorgeously written, intimate family story and a polyphonic portrait of life under the specter of Islamophobia, Between Two Moons challenges the reader to interrogate their own assumptions, asking questions of allegiance to faith, family, and community, and what it means to be a young Muslim in America.

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE SUMMER: Washington Post, Harper’s Bazaar, Afar Magazine • Winner of the New York Society Library’s Hornblower Award • Finalist for the Gotham Book Prize

“Multifaceted and moving…We’ll see the world primarily through the eyes of Amira, the dutiful twin, the one who cares enough to look; we’ll witness post-9/11 Muslim lives under relentless scrutiny; we’ll measure time by sunset and sundown and the long stretches of hunger and thirst in between; and all of it will feel like a bruise, painful and tender and sometimes beautiful…Amira’s triumph at the close of this breathtaking, elegantly structured novel is in experiencing how fully and desperately human she can be.”
—New York Times Book Review

“Gawad honestly portrays the excitement and uncertainty of adolescence, set against a backdrop of racial tension that exploded in 9/11’s aftermath.”
—Washington Post

“Heartfelt. Moving. Powerful. Between Two Moons is a gorgeously written and profoundly intimate debut. Aisha Abdel Gawad follows an Egyptian family in New York as they struggle to navigate the immigrant experience, powerfully depicting the struggle to remain themselves and the pressure to assimilate, the emotional trauma, uncertainty, displacement, and culture shock. An urgent and unflinching story that deeply challenges and changes you. We need voices like those of Aisha Abdel Gawad.”
—Etaf Rum, New Yorks Times bestselling author of Evil Eye and A Woman Is No Man

“Between Two Moons is a generous, beautiful portrait of both the joys and fears of Muslim life, one that doesn’t treat lived experience only as tragedy. It is a moving look at family, survival, and celebration, one that will echo for decades.”
—Hanif Abdurraqib, New York Times bestselling author of There’s Always This Year

“Gawad’s excellent debut novel illuminates one family’s story through the holy month of fasting against the backdrop of NYPD surveillance of a Muslim neighborhood and larger fears of detainment and deportation. . . . Engaging. . . A complex portrayal of [a] whole community. . . A vibrant achievement.”
—Kirkus

“A young Muslim woman comes of age in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, during a period of heightened anti-Arab prejudice in Gawad’s astonishing debut…A knockout…This is a winner.” 
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Gawad’s engrossing, propulsive novel evokes the heat of summer, the sharp pangs that come with fasting, the oppressive climate of fear and distrust, and the insurmountable bond between sisters. An exceptional, not-to-be-missed debut.”
—Booklist (starred review)

Ezra
Starring Robert De Niro, Bobby Cannavale, Rose Byrne, Vera Farmiga.

Director Tony Goldwyn; Writer Tony Spiridakis

Rated R.
Drama, 1hr 41m

Tony Goldwyn's EZRA follows Max Bernal (Bobby Cannavale), a stand-up comedian living with his father (Robert De Niro), while struggling to co-parent his autistic son Ezra (introducing William Fitzgerald) with his ex-wife, Jenna (Rose Byrne). When forced to confront difficult decisions about their son's future, Max and Ezra embark on a cross-country road trip that has a transcendent impact on both their lives.

The library will be closed on Monday, September 2 for Labor Day; reopening at 10 am on Tuesday, September 3.

We will be open our usual hours on Saturday, August 30 (10 am to 2 pm) and Sunday, September 1 (1 pm to 4 pm).

The Little Recipe Library is a program where recipes can be shared with others in the community. It was started by two Girl Scouts in partnership with the Willoughby Wallace Memorial Library and James Blackstone Memorial Library.

How It Works:
-Citizens can leave a recipe at one of the recipe boxes. There will be one box located at each library.
-Other people will be able to make a copy of the recipe or access the online version of the recipes.
-This will help the people of Branford find new and diverse recipes and bring our community closer together.

You can submit a recipe now by going to https:/tinyurl.com/littlerecipe

There will be two launches happening to officially start this program on Saturday, August 24th:
Willoughby Wallace Launch: 11:00 a.m.
James Blackstone Launch: 3:00 p.m.

If you have any questions please email cottontop60617@gmail.com

Bring your reading logs and collect your last prizes! Please register so that we know to expect you! Stop by or call 203-488-8702.

Part of Summer Reading! Bring your reading logs and spin the wheel for prizes (if you're eligible). Pick up more books to read while you're here too.

Everyone in attendance will be entered into our drawing to win a special prize!

Books will be for sale and signing at the event—$15 each. Amy accepts cash, checks (payable to Amy J. Barry), PayPal and Venmo.

Bob Marley - One Love
Director: Reinaldo Marcus Green

Starring: Kingsley Ben-Adir, Lashana Lynch, James Norton.

Rated PG-13
Music/Drama/Biography

ONE LOVE celebrates the life and music of an icon who inspired generations through his message of love and unity. On the screen for the first time, the film tells Bob Marley’s story of adversity and triumph and the journey behind his revolutionary music.

Part of Summer Reading! Bring your reading logs and spin the wheel for prizes (if you're eligible). Pick up more books to read while you're here too.

Everyone in attendance will be entered into our drawing to win a special prize! Please register so that we know to expect you! Stop by or call 203-488-8702.

“A feminist Iliad.”

“An important, powerful, memorable book that invites us to look differently not only at The Iliad but at our own ways of telling stories about the past and the present, and at how anger and hatred play out in our societies…. Barker’s novel is an invitation to tell those forgotten stories, and to listen for voices silenced by history and power.” The Guardian

Pat Barker won the Man Booker Prize in 1995 for 'The Ghost Road'. She was born in Yorkshire and began her literary career in her 40s.

She has published 16 novels, including her masterful Regeneration trilogy, and has been made a CBE for services to literature. Her novel The Silence of the Girls began the story of Briseis, the forgotten woman at the heart of one of the most famous war epics ever told, and was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Costa Novel Award and the Gordon Burn Prize, and won the Independent Bookshop Award 2019 — The Booker Prize

Due to high interest, a second date has been added!

You may also join us on Thursday, July 26 at 4 pm