Collage Club

We meet monthly on the last Saturday of every month from 11am-1pm. Open to all ages and no registration or prior experience is required.

Saturday, October 25, 11am-1pm

HALLOWEEN PARTY AT THE LIBRARY

FRIDAY, 24 OCT, 4-7 PM

ALL ARE INVITED! PLEASE REGISTER: 203-488-8702

LOADS OF FUN ACTIVITIES.

• Costume competition.

• Crafts and games

• Spooky snacks and witches brew

• Hocus Pocus watch party, starting 6.30 pm

Tildé Café

A café with an accent on science & the world

Professor Theodore Kim, Department of Computer Science, Yale University

Saturday, October 18, 3 pm

Visit the Tildé Café here for details.

Oldie Movie Night

The Others

Starring Nicole Kidman

Rated PG-13 | 1 hour, 44 minutes

In 1945, immediately following the end of Second World War, a woman who lives with her two photosensitive children on her darkened old family estate in the Channel Islands becomes convinced that the home is haunted.

7:00 pm Showtime. Doors open at 6:50 pm. Light refreshments served. Sponsored by the Friends of the Library.

The Labor Movement at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

Presented by Cecelia Bucki

Thursday, October 16, 7 pm.

Event Nine of a year-long series to mark the publication of the book, Flesh & Stone.

Cecelia Bucki, Ph.D., has taught American labor and working-class history at Fairfield University for twenty-five years. She is the author of Bridgeport’s Socialist New Deal, 1915-1936 (University of Illinois Press, 2001).

SUNDAY CONCERTS AT THE LIBRARY

MIXED COMPANY OF YALE

SUN | OCT 12 | 2 PM

An undergraduate a capella* group with a diverse repertoire: R&B, Jazz, Rock, Pop, Oldies, and more.

*a capella: vocal music performed without instrumental accompaniment.

Free. Join us. All welcome!

NEW! ARTS, CRAFTS & COMICS CLUB with Bella.

AGES, 0-200.

Meeting monthly in the Conference Room.

All Welcome!

Call to sign up: 203-488-8702

A fixed project every time. Make art, draw comics, chat. Snacks on offer.

Willoughby Book Talk

Making democracy work again…?

THE DISPERSION OF POWER

A CRITICAL REALIST THEORY OF DEMOCRACY

by Samuel Bagg

Oxford University Press, 2024

Samuel Bagg in Conversation with James Boyce on Rethinking Democracy

Wednesday, October 8, 7 pm

This is a virtual discussion.

Click here to log in via ZOOM

About the book

The Dispersion of Power is an urgent call to rethink centuries of conventional wisdom about what democracy is, why it matters, and how to make it better. Drawing from history, social science, psychology, and critical theory, it explains why elections do not and cannot realize the classic ideal of popular rule, and why prevailing strategies of democratic reform often make things worse. Instead, Bagg argues, we should see democracy as a way of protecting public power from capture-an alternative vision that is at once more realistic and more inspiring.

Despite their many shortcomings, real-world elections do prevent the most extreme forms of tyranny, and are therefore indispensable. In dealing with the vast inequalities that remain, however, we cannot rely on standard solutions such as electoral reform, direct democracy, deliberation, and participatory governance. Instead, Bagg shows, protecting and enriching democracy requires addressing underlying inequalities of power directly. In part, this entails substantive policies attacking the advantages of wealthy elites. Even more crucially, deepening democracy requires the organization of oppositional, countervailing power among ordinary people. Neither task is easy, but historical precedents exist in both cases-and if democracy is to survive contemporary crises, leaders and citizens alike must find ways to revive and reinvent these essential democratic practices for the 21st century.

Source: Oxford University Press

Reviews

"Democrats have failed to confront the realities of power, Samuel Bagg compellingly argues, frustrating their own hopes by thinking about democracy itself the wrong way. In doing so, they have helped reproduce hierarchy rather than prioritize mechanisms to counteract the risk of state capture. Few books are both important and original in their provocation, and even fewer explore an arresting insight with the generality and specifics to make it potent. The Dispersion of Power does all of this—and more." -- Samuel Moyn, Yale University

"[An] impressive and compelling contribution to realist democratic theory… The Dispersion of Power is an urgent and important reminder that protecting the democratic state against oligarchic capture should take priority in our efforts to save democracy in this time of peril." -- Simone Chambers, University of California Irvine

”One of the most important developments in recent political theory is the growth of realist accounts and defenses of democratic politics. In that exciting wave of scholarship, Samuel Bagg has written the most intellectually ambitious book. He treats the central problem of politics as the management and checking of power, not the expression of collective will….This challenging and major work sets a new standard for what it is like to put realist thought to constructive and far-reaching work." -- Jacob T. Levy, McGill University

“In an account both subtle and bracing, Bagg focuses on the dangers of concentrated power; and he shows a real path to organizing countervailing powers in order to resist capture of the state by private interests." -- Jan-Werner Müller, Princeton University

About the Author

SAMUEL ELY BAGG is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of South Carolina, where he teaches political theory. He has also taught at the University of Oxford, McGill University, and Duke University, where he received his PhD in 2017. His research in democratic theory has appeared in the American Political Science Review; the American Journal of Political Science; the Journal of Politics; the Journal of Political Philosophy; and Dissent Magazine; among many other venues.

www.samuelbagg.com

About the Discussant

JAMES K. BOYCE is an author, economist, and senior fellow at the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he is also Professor Emeritus of Economics. He is the author of several books, including Economics for the People and the Planet: Inequality in the Era of Climate Change and the creator of a seven-part video series, The Economics of War and Peace. He has written for Harper’s, Scientific American, Politico, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and numerous scholarly journals, including Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, World Development, Environmental Research Letters, and Climatic Change. Jim received the 2024 Global Inequality Research Award, the 2017 Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought, and the 2011 Fair Sharing of the Common Heritage Award from Project Censored and the Media Freedom Foundation.

www.jameskboyce.com

Apologies, but due to illness, this film screening is cancelled.

New Movie Night

The Penguin Lessons

Starring Steve Coogan and Jonathan Pryce

Rated PG-13

ART OPENING | RECEPTION

SUNDAY, SEPT 28, 4 PM

UNFOLDING . . . FRESH

Paintings

Recent Works by

Laura Prete & Soraya Hutchinson

On exhibit in the Keyes Gallery: September 26 - October 20

Deconstructing Stone Buildings

Presented by Robert Barnett

Thursday, September 25, 4 pm.

Event Eight of a year-long series to mark the publication of the book, Flesh & Stone.

Robert Barnett, an architect, deconstructs building to discover their origin. He is the author of the book, Deconstructing Stony Building: A Journey Through New England. Barnett will discuss Stony Creek granite.

SUNDAY CONCERTS AT THE LIBRARY

NEW SEASON BEGINS

SETH ADAM & JEFF BURNHAM

SUN | SEP 21 | 2 PM

Americana Indie Rock.

Two singer-songwriters team up to trade songs and tell the stories about their songs.

Free. Join us. All welcome!

Flesh & Stone: The Story of Stony Creek Granite. A Documentary Film

Another opportunity to watch the documentary if you missed it last time! Plus, view Born at the Water’s Edge, another documentary about Stony Creek.

Saturday, September 20 at 3 pm

Keyes Gallery.

Join us Saturday, September 20 for another session of our popular collage workshop. Drop in anytime between 11 am and 1 pm. All ages welcome!

Be inspired by the work of our Keyes Gallery artist: Rashmi Talpade, as you make your own. Rashmi’s collages will be on display through September 22.

All supplies provided. Register by phone: 203-488-8702 or stop by the library to reserve a spot. Hope to see you!

The crown jewel to ten years of Bruce Brown surfing documentaries. Brown follows two young surfers around the world in search of the perfect wave, and ends up finding quite a few in addition to some colorful local characters.

1 hr 35 min | Not rated | Documentary, Sports, Travel | 1966

All welcome—doors open at 6:50 pm. Light refreshments provided by the Friends of WWML.

WILLOUGHBY BOOK TALK

Zero at the Bone:

Fifty Entries Against Despair

by Christian Wiman

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 7 PM

“Wiman offers a welcome tonic: poetic and philosophical reminders of how to get through troubling times. . . Wiman could charm an atheist out of a tree . . . [Zero at the Bone is] a profane, irreverent, freewheeling and necessary book. Readers of whatever creed will be jolted to lift their heads from their screens and turn them to the unfathomable heavens.” —Alexandra Jacobs, The New York Times (Editor's Choice)

Christian Wiman braids poetry, memoir, and criticism to create an inspired, career-defining work.

Few contemporary writers ask the questions about faith, morality, and God that Christian Wiman does, and even fewer—perhaps none—do so with his urgency and eloquence. Wiman, an award-winning poet and the author of My Bright Abyss, lays the motion of his mind on the page in this genre-defying work, an indivisible blend of poetry, criticism, theology, and searing memoir. As Marilynne Robinson wrote, “[Wiman’s] poetry and his scholarship have a purifying urgency that is rare in this world . . . [It] enables him to say new things in timeless language, so that the reader’s surprise and assent are one and the same.”

Zero at the Bone begins with Wiman’s preoccupation with despair, and through fifty brief pieces, he unravels its seductive appeal. The book is studded with the poetry and prose of writers who inhabit Wiman’s thoughts, and the voices of Wallace Stevens, Lucille Clifton, Emily Dickinson, and others join his own. At its heart and Wiman’s, however, are his family—his young children (who ask their own invaluable questions, like “Why are you a poet? I mean why?”), his wife, and those he grew up with in West Texas. Wiman is the rare thinker who takes on the mantle of our greatest mystics and does so with an honest, profound, and contemporary sensibility. Zero at the Bone is a revelation.

Source: MacMillan Publishers.

About the Author

Christian Wiman is the author, editor, or translator of more than a dozen books of poetry and prose, including two memoirs, My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer and He Held Radical Light: The Art of Faith, the Faith of Art; Every Riven Thing, winner of the Ambassador Book Award; Once in the West, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist; and Survival Is a Style—all published by FSG. He teaches religion and literature at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music and at Yale Divinity School.

Also read this Poetry Foundation piece here.

Please note: this film is being shown on the SECOND Friday of the month.

An eccentric lottery winner who lives alone on a remote island tries to make his fantasies come true by getting his favorite musicians to perform at his home. Starring Tom Basden, Tim Key, and Sian Clifford.

1 hr 39 min | Rated PG-13 | Comedy, Drama

All welcome—doors open at 6:50 pm. Light refreshments provided by the Friends of WWML.

Dense, intricate, astonishing.

Rashmi Talpade’s exhibitions of photo-collages is at the Keyes Gallery from August 29 to September 22.

Join her at the library for an Artist’s Talk to hear about her work, her art, the inspiration and the process.

ARTIST’S TALK

RASHMI TALPADE

Thursday, September 11, 7 pm

ABOUT THE ARTIST

RASHMI TALPADE is an American artist residing in Wallingford for almost 35 years.

While her art career has covered various formats since graduating from art

school, her recent works are more focused on public art for which she has

received numerous grants and fellowships from the Connecticut Office of the Arts

and the National Endowment of the Arts. Rashmi has exhibited and done projects

all across Connecticut as well as New York, Massachusetts and New Mexico. Her

works are in the collection of the New Britain Museum of American Art and the

Roopankar Museum of Modern Art in India.

Rashmi’s urban themed collages explore environmental challenges faced by our

planet, where industrial relics merge with nature’s relentless march across

manmade waste. Her photo-collages, created by assembling hundreds of

fragments of her own collection of photographs, reflect our world in seemingly

ordinary objects. It is a narrative of our previous and current successes that, while

coexisting together, differ in many different ways. We are in the center of a

turbulent time in our history, where change is increasingly infiltrating lives of

young and old. Viewers are invited to engage with the works or they would miss

the details that reveal the optical play of visual depth and challenging

perspectives. It is also critical for viewers to stand back and maintain a necessary

distance to understand how the collages multiply spatially to create a complete

image.

The exhibition has four garden themes photo-collages, sized 40”x30”, which are

on loan from Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital (YNHCH). They were created

during Rashmi's art residency at YNHCH and was part of an Arts for Healing

program “Our Hearts Grow Wild”. The program was designed to foster resiliency

in youth and their families through therapeutic interventions and creative arts

experiences, to improve coping with their healthcare journey. The collages used

garden themed photographs, depicting the four different seasons, which were

collected from Yale’s hospital community and the patients and their families.

These photographs were then used by the patients to create the collages under

the artist’s guidance.

www.artofrashmi.net

CPR TRAINING CLASS

TUE | SEPT 9 | 7 PM

REGISTRATION REQUIRED. THIS FREE CLASS IS LIMITED TO 12 PARTICIPANTS.

Third repeat session due to high interest.

Call to register

203.488.8702

Meet the artist at her opening reception: Sunday, September 7 from 4 to 6 pm.
No registration necessary; all welcome.

View the exhibit of photo-collages now through September 22 during library hours: Monday to Thursday: 10 am to 8 pm; Friday: 10 am to 5 pm; Saturday: 10 am to 2 pm; and Sunday 1 pm to 4 pm.

Join her at the library for an Artist’s Talk to hear about her work, her art, the inspiration and the process: Thursday, September 11 at 7 pm.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

RASHMI TALPADE is an American artist residing in Wallingford for almost 35 years. While her art career has covered various formats since graduating from art school, her recent works are more focused on public art for which she has received numerous grants and fellowships from the Connecticut Office of the Arts and the National Endowment of the Arts. Rashmi has exhibited and done projects all across Connecticut as well as New York, Massachusetts and New Mexico. Her works are in the collection of the New Britain Museum of American Art and the Roopankar Museum of Modern Art in India.

Rashmi’s urban themed collages explore environmental challenges faced by our planet, where industrial relics merge with nature’s relentless march across manmade waste. Her photo-collages, created by assembling hundreds of fragments of her own collection of photographs, reflect our world in seemingly ordinary objects. It is a narrative of our previous and current successes that, while coexisting together, differ in many different ways. We are in the center of a turbulent time in our history, where change is increasingly infiltrating lives of young and old. Viewers are invited to engage with the works or they would miss the details that reveal the optical play of visual depth and challenging perspectives. It is also critical for viewers to stand back and maintain a necessary distance to understand how the collages multiply spatially to create a complete image.

The exhibition has four garden themes photo-collages, sized 40”x30”, which are on loan from Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital (YNHCH). They were created during Rashmi's art residency at YNHCH and was part of an Arts for Healing program “Our Hearts Grow Wild”. The program was designed to foster resiliency in youth and their families through therapeutic interventions and creative arts experiences, to improve coping with their healthcare journey. The collages used garden themed photographs, depicting the four different seasons, which were collected from Yale’s hospital community and the patients and their families. These photographs were then used by the patients to create the collages under the artist’s guidance.

Visit Rashmi’s website to learn more about her and her process: www.artofrashmi.net

Amy Bloom will be at the library to talk about her new book.

I’ll Be Right Here: A Novel

A reading, conversation, Q&A

Thursday, September 4, 7 pm

Call to register: 203-488-8702

Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event.

About the Book

A sweeping, intimate novel about an unconventional and irresistible family, in prose “so finely wrought it shimmers” (Los Angeles Times)—from the New York Times bestselling author of In Love, White Houses, and Away

“Amy Bloom is at the height of her powers in this epic tale.”—J. Courtney Sullivan, author of The Cliffs

Immigrating alone from Paris to New York after the crucible of World War II, young Gazala becomes friends with two spirited sisters, Anne and Alma. When Gazala’s lost, beloved brother, Samir, joins her in Manhattan, this contentious, inseparable foursome makes their way into the twenty-first century, becoming the beating heart of a multigenerational found family.

The passing years are marked by the business of everyday existence and the inevitable surprises of erupting passions, of great and small waves of joy and despair, from the beginning of life to its end. Gazala and Samir make a home together, Anne leaves her husband for his sister, and Anne’s restless daughter grows up to raise a child on her own and to join a throuple, becoming who she wants to be. Through it all, amid the tumult of these decades, the four friends and their best beloveds stand by one another, protecting, annoying, and celebrating themselves, steadfastly unapologetic about their desires and the unorthodox family they have created. As the next generation falls in and out of love, experiencing triumphs, mistakes and disappointments, the central pillars of their lives are the four indomitable elders they call the “Greats.”

In I’ll Be Right Here, Amy Bloom embraces the complexity and richness of humanity and the lawlessness of love, bringing her trademark voice, wry humor, and compassionate eye to the many, often mysterious ways we live as we love, and hope to be loved in return.

Source; Penguin Random House

About the Author

Amy Bloom is the author of four novels: White Houses, Lucky Us, Away, and Love Invents Us; and three collections of short stories: Where the God Of Love Hangs Out, Come to Me (finalist for the National Book Award), and A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You (finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award). Her first book of nonfiction, Normal: Transsexual CEOs, Crossdressing Cops and Hermaphrodites with Attitudes, is a staple of university sociology and biology courses. Her most recent book is the widely acclaimed New York Times bestselling memoir, In Love. She has written for magazines such as The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Vogue, Elle, The Atlantic, Slate, and Salon, and her work has been translated into fifteen languages. She is the Director of the Shapiro Center at Wesleyan University.

REGISTRATION REQUIRED. THIS FREE CLASS IS LIMITED TO 12 PARTICIPANTS.

(This is the same class that was offered in June, just another session due to high interest.)

WILLOUGHBY BOOK TALK

CO-SPONSORED BY THE BRANFORD LAND TRUST

AS PART OF ITS ‘SALT MARSH CELEBRATION’ EVENT SERIES

The Outermost House: A Year of Life

on the Great Beach of Cape Cod

by Henry Beston

The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod by Henry Beston is a seminal work of American nature writing that chronicles a year spent living on the dunes of Cape Cod between the Atlantic and the Nauset salt marsh. Published in 1928, it helped inspire the creation of the Cape Cod National Seashore.

[T]he classic book about Cape Cod, "written with simplicity, sympathy, and beauty" (New York Herald Tribune).

A chronicle of a solitary year spent on a Cape Cod beach, The Outermost House has long been recognized as a classic of American nature writing. Henry Beston had originally planned to spend just two weeks in his seaside home, but was so possessed by the mysterious beauty of his surroundings that he found he "could not go."

Instead, he sat down to try and capture in words the wonders of the magical landscape he found himself in thrall to: the migrations of seabirds, the rhythms of the tide, the windblown dunes, and the scatter of stars in the changing summer sky. Beston argued that, "The world today is sick to its thin blood for the lack of elemental things, for fire before the hands, for water, for air, for the dear earth itself underfoot." Seventy-five years after they were first published, Beston's words are more true than ever.

[Source: MacMillan Publishers]

This book talk is presented in collaboration with the Branford Land Trust as it launches its Jarvis Creek Farm Salt Marsh Migration and Restoration Project. In celebration of the salt marsh it is sponsoring a series of free, fun & educational activities for all ages to learn about the importance of salt marshes. For more info: branfordlandtrust.org

The History of the Railroad System in Southeast Connecticut

Presented by Keith Barker

Tuesday, August 19, 4 pm

Event Seven of a year-long series to mark the publication of the book, Flesh & Stone.

Join us for a WATCH PARTY! We’ll have snacks and drinks—all are welcome, including kids! Costumes encouraged. Please note the time change; the film will start promptly at 6 pm!

A bedridden boy's grandfather reads him the story of a farmboy-turned-pirate who encounters numerous obstacles, enemies and allies in his quest to be reunited with his true love. Starring Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, and Robin Wright.

1 hr 37 min | Rated PG | Adventure, Comedy, Family

All welcome. Light refreshments provided by the Friends of WWML.

Willoughby Writers Group

A gathering of local writers working in fiction and nonfiction.

First and third Thursdays of the month.

Membership is limited. Please call for details.

If you’re interested in joining the group or need more information, please contact Rabia.

rali@wwml.org / 203.483.8702

Part of our Summer Reading Program: Color Our World!
Attendees will be entered into a drawing for a prize pack.

Painting with food? YES! Please register, space and supplies are limited.

Sponsored by the Friends of WWML

Part of our Summer Reading Program: Color Our World!
Attendees will be entered into a drawing for a prize pack.

Join us to “Color Our World” for the birds too! Please register, space and supplies are limited.

Sponsored by the Friends of WWML

Meet the artists at their opening reception and awards presentation: Sunday, August 3 from 4 to 6 pm. Works include watercolor, photography, mixed media, and more, created by children and adult artists.

No registration necessary; all welcome.

View the exhibit during library hours: Monday to Thursday: 10 am to 8 pm; Friday: 10 am to 5 pm; Saturday: 10 am to 2 pm; and Sunday 1 pm to 4 pm.