March is a busy month at Greenwich Library, with many ongoing programs scheduled, including book groups and meditation workshops, as well as an informative new environmental series and a writing series.
Interested in learning more about how to research your ancestry? Join us on Wednesday. March 2, as genealogist Rhonda McClure shares how to access all of the abundant information available that is useful for family history research, including the New England Historic Genealogical Society Library, AmericanAncestors.org and more. McClure is a nationally recognized professional genealogist and lecturer specializing in New England and celebrity research, as well as computerized genealogy.
On Wednesday, March 10, Cos Cob Library kicks off the new, four-part environmental series—called One Air, Water and Land. Topics to be discussed include: the soil solution to healthy water and land; local water supply issues; Greenwich’s traffic congestion problems, and how climate change is impacting, and will impact, the state of Connecticut. The series will occur on four consecutive Wednesdays for one hour each and will feature panel discussions by esteemed local environmental experts. More information can be found in the calendar listing below, as well as on the Library’s online calendar.
On March 22, join us to discuss the craft of writing with creative writing professor and the program director at Bryn Mawr College, Dan Torday. Torday’s visit is part of Greenwich Library’s new program, Summit Series, which intends to bring exceptional writers to the library to speak on their craft.
Check out the event lineup below for additional programs happening this month! The complete calendar of March programs can be found on the Library’s online calendar.
For the virtual programs below, register via the Library’s online calendar to receive attendee Zoom link and password before the event (unless otherwise noted).
VIRTUAL – American Ancestors Series: Mining Treasures in Newspapers with Rhonda McClure
Tuesday, March 2, 7 – 8 p.m.
Join genealogist Rhonda McClure to learn about the available information for genealogy research, how it can be useful for your family history research, and how to access the abundant resources, available at the New England Historic Genealogical Society library, on AmericanAncestors.org and beyond. McClure is a nationally recognized professional genealogist and lecturer specializing in New England and celebrity research, as well as computerized genealogy. McClure’s compiled more than 120 celebrity family trees and has been a contributing editor for Heritage Quest Magazine, Biography magazine and was a contributor to The History Channel Magazine and American History Magazine. In addition to numerous articles, she is the author of ten books, including the award-winning The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Online Genealogy, now in its second edition, Finding Your Famous and Infamous Ancestors, and Digitizing Your Family History.
VIRTUAL – Senior Chinese Book Discussion Group
Friday, March 5 & 19, 10 – 11 a.m.
Join us for this bimonthly book discussion group specifically for local senior Chinese residents, who are interested in making new friends, understanding American culture, and discussing current events.
VIRTUAL – Meditation Workshop
Held four Fridays this month! March 5, 12, 19 & 26, 3:30 – 4:00 p.m.
Meditation and mindfulness bring both short-term and long-lasting benefits into all aspects of our lives. Turning inward allows us to connect better, focus more clearly, and express a greater sense of gratitude, especially during this uncertain and unsettling time. Join Zach Redler during this 30-minute class to learn and discuss different meditation and mindfulness techniques that will hopefully allow for a greater sense of joy and spaciousness in your life. No experience necessary; beginners are welcome. This class is part of an 8-week session from February 5th through March 26th.
VIRTUAL – Friends Book Group
Tuesday, March 9, 1 – 3 p.m.
Join us this month in reading Luster by Raven Leilani. Edie is stumbling her way through her twenties, sharing a subpar apartment in Bushwick, clocking in and out of her admin job, making a series of inappropriate sexual choices. She is also haltingly, fitfully giving heat and air to the art that simmers inside her. And then she meets Eric, a digital archivist with a family in New Jersey, including an autopsist wife who has agreed to an open marriage—with rules. As if navigating the constantly shifting landscapes of contemporary sexual manners and racial politics weren’t hard enough, Edie finds herself unemployed and invited into Eric’s home, though not by Eric. She becomes a hesitant ally to his wife and a de facto role model to his adopted daughter. Edie may be the only Black woman young Akila knows. Luster is a portrait of a young woman trying to make sense of her life, her hunger, her anger, in a tumultuous era. It is also a description of how hard it is to believe in your own talent and the unexpected influences that bring us into ourselves along the way.
VIRTUAL – Dictionaries: A Historical Perspective on How Society Set Out to Tame the Written Language
Tuesday, March 9, 5 – 6 p.m.
This talk will be about the origins and significance of Dictionaries. With the creation of learned institutions, academies and societies, dictionaries developed to help standardize and make languages accessible for everyone. This talk will be presented by M. Robert Henrey, linguist, in association with Alliance Française, Greenwich.
VIRTUAL – New Yorker Stories Discussion Group
Tuesday, March 9, 5 – 6:30 p.m.
On the second Tuesday of the month, Cos Cob Library welcomes Susan Boyar, a long-time facilitator at both Cos Cob and Greenwich Libraries, to guide us through a current New Yorker short story. Even though the stories are only three or four pages long, our animated discussions often carry on into the evening. Come join us! Registrants will receive the featured story by email at a future date.
VIRTUAL – The Soil Solution to Clean Water, Air, and Land (Cos Cob Library)
Wednesday, March 10, 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Please join us on Wednesdays in March (starting on the 10th) for an Environmental Lecture Series titled One Air, Water and Land. The first lecture is focused on The Soil Solution to Clean Water, Air and Healthy Land, with moderator Myra Klockenbrink and panelists: Jay Feldman, Beyond Pesticides; Jackie Algon, Pollinator Pathway; and Michael Strangel, Kiss the Ground. Soil plays an important role in water quality, climate change, and human health. Unfortunately, decades of deforestation, monoculture, and poor farming practices had stripped the land of much of its goodness. It’s estimated that 75 billion tons of fertile soil are lost to land degradation every year, leaving Earth in a parlous state. It is not too late to change agriculture from being one of the major contributors to climate change to becoming one of the major solutions. This panel discussion will unveil the do’s and don’ts of soil care in participants’ backyards while cultivating the appreciation for soil biodiversity, fertility, and organic treatment.
VIRTUAL – Qi Gong (Cos Cob Library)
Held two Thursdays this month! March 11 & 18, 11:30 a.m. – 12:45 p.m.
Join us for an interactive intro to Qi-Gong: mindful movement and breathing with Dana McAvity. Learn time-tested and research-proven techniques to help integrate, body, mind, and spirit through gentle movements, postures, and proper breathing. Benefits include stress reduction, improved sleep, strengthened immune system, balance and muscle tone.
VIRTUAL – Cloak and Dagger Book Club Cos Cob Library)
Saturday, March 13, 1 – 2 p.m.
The Staff and Friends invite mystery and crime lovers to our monthly book club. It is currently led by the lively members themselves. This month’s selection is A Cold Day for Murder by Dana Stabenow. Kate Shugak, a former detective with the Anchorage District Attorney’s office, is called out of her self-imposed isolation when she is recruited to find out what happened to a young national park ranger who disappeared during the Alaskan winter along with an investigator sent in to check on him.
VIRTUAL – Brown Bag Book Club (Cos Cob Library)
Wednesday, March 17, 12 – 1:15 p.m.
Join us at our longest-running Cos Cob Library book club with facilitator-extraordinaire, Susan Boyar. Each month we read books chosen by Boyar that warrant special merit and discussion. This month, the group will be discussing Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli. New members are always welcome!
International Book Club (Byram Shubert Library)
Wednesday, March 17, 5 – 6 p.m.
This month’s book selection is Adèle by Leila Slimani. Adèle appears to have the perfect life: She is a successful journalist in Paris who lives in a beautiful apartment with her surgeon husband and their young son. But underneath the surface, she is bored, and consumed by an insatiable need for sex. Driven less by pleasure than compulsion, Adèle organizes her day around her extramarital affairs, arriving late to work and lying to her husband about where she’s been until she becomes ensnared in a trap of her own making. Suspenseful, erotic, and electrically charged, Adèle is a captivating exploration of addiction, sexuality, and one woman’s quest to feel alive. This book club is in association with Alliance Française, Greenwich.
VIRTUAL – Is Greenwich Facing a Water Shortage? (Cos Cob Library)
Wednesday, March 17, 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Please join us for the second lecture in the series Air, Water, and Land. The topic of this talk is, Is Greenwich Facing a Water Shortage? The moderator is Elizabeth Dempsey, with panelists: John Mullaney, USGS; Patricia Sesto, Director of Environmental Affairs, Town of Greenwich; and Jeff Ulrich, Vice President of Supply Operations and Sustainability, Aquarion Water Company. There is an increasing awareness that freshwater resources in Greenwich are limited and need to be protected, both in terms of quantity and quality. Severe droughts and water overdraw affect not only the water users but also the decision-makers. Our group of panelists will explain the important connections between surface water and groundwater and how the action of one property owner may have lasting consequences on the entire water system.
VIRTUAL – Spring Breakfast Cooking Demo with Gail: Belgian Waffles and Homemade Yogurt (Byram Shubert Library)
Saturday, March 20, 10:30 – 11:30 a.m.
Let’s celebrate spring approaching! Learn the secrets to making the best light and fluffy waffles while adding a delicious healthy yogurt as a topping. Participants will learn all the preparations and executions from our French friend Gail. All Cooking Demos are generously sponsored by the Friends of the Byram Shubert Library.
VIRTUAL Writer’s Summit Series: Dan Torday
Monday, March 22, 7 – 8 p.m.
Greenwich Library’s new program series, Summit Series, intends to bring exceptional writers to the library to speak and complement ongoing writing programs. Join us to discuss the craft of writing with creative writing professor and program director at Bryn Mawr College, Dan Torday. Torday is the author of two novels: The Last Flight of Poxl West, a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice and an International Dublin Literary Award nominee; and Boomer1. Torday’s work has appeared in The New York Times, NPR, The Paris Review Daily and Tin House, and has been honored in both the Best American Short Stories and Best American Essays series. A two-time National Jewish Book Awardee and winner the 2017 Sami Rohr Choice Prize, he’s also appeared in the Harvard Review, n+1, and Esquire.
VIRTUAL – Foreign Affairs Book Discussion Group
Tuesday, March 23, 7 – 8:30 p.m.
The book to read in March is Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth by Rachel Maddow. In Blowout, Maddow takes the reader on a switchback journey around the globe, revealing the greed and incompetence of Big Oil and Gas along the way, and drawing a surprising conclusion about why the Russian government hacked the 2016 U.S. election. She deftly shows how Russia’s rich reserves of crude have, paradoxically, stunted its growth, forcing Putin to maintain his power by spreading Russia’s rot into its rivals, its neighbors, the West’s most important alliances, and the United States. The book is Maddow’s call to stop subsidizing the wealthiest businesses on earth, to fight for transparency, and to check the influence of the world’s most destructive industry and its enablers.
VIRTUAL – Processing Grief: A COVID-19 Grief-Journaling Workshop
Held in 5 hour-long weekly sessions, March 24 & 31, April 7, 14 & 21, 11 a.m. – 12 p.m.
COVID-19 has brought with it an immense loss. At the most basic level, a loss of routine, feeling safe, and control. It has also taken lives and livelihoods. With loss comes the emotions of grief and suffering. This grief journaling workshop is designed to help participants process a loss or losses that they suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic through the act of journaling. Each session will include a theme, a facilitated, interactive discussion and optional sharing of journal entries. The workshop will be led by Jennifer Quasha Deinard, an NYU-trained, ICF-accredited Professional grief coach, speaker, and author. She has published more than 40 books for adults and children and has led writing workshops at the Greenwich YWCA’s Domestic Violence Services and the Rowan Center in Stamford.
VIRTUAL – How to Ease Traffic Congestion in Greenwich (Cos Cob Library)
Wednesday, March 24, 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.
This is the third lecture in the environmental series One Air, Water, and Land. This one focuses on How to Ease Traffic Congestion in Greenwich, with moderator Ernst Schirmer and panelists Kristin Floberg, Planner, Western Connecticut Council of Governments (WestCOG); and Jason Spigel, Freebee, and TBD. This panel discussion will look at a number of valuable options for easing congestion in Greenwich, while highlighting the benefits and challenges. Traffic congestion from vehicles results in a significant time burden across the globe. If time is money, time spent in traffic comes at a high cost. As of September 2020, an average American worker loses approximately $1,591 per year to traffic. Wages and productivity aren’t the only things traffic affects. Traffic congestion racks up many costs that are more difficult to calculate. These include the environmental impact of carbon emissions from idling tailpipes, the staggering cost of repairing and replacing roads and bridge infrastructure, and the health impacts of gridlock-induced stress. With the advent of smart mobility, the return of micro-mobility, and tougher regulations on car emissions, the question of whether we have a new window of opportunity to tame congestion is now high on the list of possibilities.
VIRTUAL – Changing Earth, Changing Climate (Cos Cob Library)
Wednesday, March 31, 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Please join us for the fourth lecture in the environmental series One Air, Water, and Land. The lecture is Changing Earth, Changing Climate, with moderator: Allison Walsh and speaker Laura Bozzi, Ph.D., Director of Programs at the Yale University Climate Change and Health Initiative.
Connecticut’s climate is changing. The state has warmed two to three degrees (F) in the last century. Throughout the northeastern United States, spring is arriving earlier and bringing more precipitation, in shorter, stronger, and more frequent storms and summers are hotter and drier. Sea level is rising, and severe storms increasingly cause floods that damage property and infrastructure. In the coming decades, the changing climate is likely to further increase flooding, harm ecosystems, disrupt farming, and increase some risks to human health. In her presentation, Dr. Bozzi will track 19 indicators related to climate change and health in Connecticut attributed to the impacts of climate change.
Programs and services are made available to Library patrons at no charge through the support of the Greenwich Library Board of Trustees, through contributions by generous donors. For more information and on these and other programs, visit www.greenwichlibrary.org.
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About Greenwich Library
The Greenwich Library system consists of the Main Library and its Byram Shubert and Cos Cob branches. The mission of Greenwich Library is to provide exceptional resources, programs and services that promote the joy of lifelong learning and discovery, and to offer a welcoming place for people to gather and share experiences. With over 2,000 programs and events per year, the Library seeks to serve as the cultural and intellectual crossroads of the community. Greenwich Library has a total circulation of about 1.2 million, the highest reported in Connecticut. Greenwich Library was recently named a five-star library by Library Journal for the 11th time. Greenwich Library is located at 101 West Putnam Avenue in Greenwich. Cos Cob Library is located at 5 Sinawoy Road in Cos Cob. Byram Shubert Library is located at 21 Mead Avenue in Greenwich. More information is available online at www.greenwichlibrary.org or by calling 203-622-7900.
