Greenwich Library’s May calendar lineup includes book discussion groups, film talks, meditation and qi gong and performing arts.
The Friends Friday Film Reel Talk series will feature two different films this month: The Farewell and Lucky Logan. Watch the films for free on your own time using a Greenwich Library card and the digital library app Kanopy. Then join the Friends Friday Film Reel Talk at 7 p.m. on Friday, May 7, and Friday, May 21, for interesting virtual discussions about the films.
On Thursday, May 20 at 7 p.m., join visual artist, designer, writer, and performer Jaime Sunwoo and composer, lyricist, and sound designer Matt Chilton for a unique view behind the creative process of their “surreal autobiography,” titled Specially Processed American Me. This program, sponsored by the Friends of Greenwich Library, will be a virtual lecture, combining musical and dramatic excerpts. Sunwoo and Chilton will alternate presenting as they dive into their own processes, showing how their different art forms and media enrich their storytelling. More information can be found in the description below.
Check out the event lineup below for additional programs happening this month! The complete calendar of May 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 – Chair Yoga with Kristin (Byram Shubert Library)
Tuesday, May 4, 4 – 5 p.m.
Join us for Chair Yoga and start to feel better today! Chair yoga is a 60-minute community class with breathing exercises and a series of movements designed to improve posture and balance, increase strength and flexibility and relax the body and mind. Research shows that yoga increases bone density, facilitates weight loss, stabilizes blood pressure, improves range of motion, and reduces depression. There is no experience necessary for this class and all movements can be modified to suit your needs. This program is sponsored by Friends of the Byram Shubert Library.
VIRTUAL – Qi Gong (Cos Cob Library)
Held four Wednesdays this month! May 5, 12, 19 & 26, 11:30 a.m. – 12:45 p.m.
Feeling stressed? 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. It’s the perfect way to spend your lunch break!
VIRTUAL – “Giacomo Puccini’s Greatest Hits” with Soprano Claire Stadtmueller (Byram Shubert Library)
Thursday, May 6, 7 – 8 p.m.
Soprano Claire Stadtmueller will sing songs from the most beloved operas of all time, including La Bohème, Tosca, and Madame Butterfly. Stadtmueller has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and NYC’s Central Park. Join us virtually for this spectacular soprano performance!
VIRTUAL – Senior Chinese Book Discussion Group
Friday, May 7 & 21, 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 – Friends Friday Film Reel Talk: The Farewell
Friday, May 7, 7 – 8 p.m.
Don’t miss this Friday Friends Film Reel Talk discussion as we discuss the film, The Farewell. It can be viewed on the free streaming service, Kanopy, which is accessible with a Greenwich Library card. Watch the movie from the comfort of your own home, and then join us on Zoom to discuss this moving and touching film. In this funny, heartfelt story, Billi’s family returns to China under the guise of a fake wedding to stealthily say goodbye to their beloved matriarch, the only person that doesn’t know she only has a few weeks to live. The Farewell was Golden Globe winner for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture in a Musical or Comedy and also an Official Selection at the Sundance Film Festival. This series is made possible by contributions from the Friends of Greenwich Library.
VIRTUAL – Cloak and Dagger Book Club (Cos Cob Library)
Saturday, May 8, 1 – 2 p.m.
The Staff and Friends of Greenwich Library invite mystery and crime lovers to our monthly book club led by the lively members themselves. This month’s selection is Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith, a can’t-put-down mystery about a triple murder in Moscow. Why had they been buried in the snows of Gorky Park? Come join us to discuss this enthralling mystery!
VIRTUAL – Creative Writing Workshop: Writing for Sanity
Tuesday, May 11, 1 – 3 p.m. Repeats weekly every Tuesday at 1 p.m. until June 15.
This is a writing workshop that will encompass six sessions. Please only register if you plan to attend all six. Writing is often a way to express feelings and deal with them. Whether you are writing to cope with the challenging times we are living in, make sense of your past experiences, or create fictional worlds, this course will help you achieve clarity in your writing. Both novice and experienced writers are welcome. Through instruction about craft, examples of published works, in-class writing exercises, and take-home assignments, you will develop confidence in your own voice, acquire tools to improve your writing and learn how to identify and express the emotional truths in your work. Participants will receive teacher and peer feedback in a supportive workshop environment. The workshops will be led by Amy Ralston Seife, a published short story writer who has been nominated twice for a Pushcart Prize. She is the Managing Editor of The Westchester Review, teaches creative writing classes and workshops, and is a freelance editor and writing coach. She holds an MA in English Literature from Yale, and an MFA in fiction writing from Sarah Lawrence, as well as an MBA from Columbia University.
VIRTUAL – Friends Book Group
Tuesday, May 11, 1 – 3 p.m.
Join us this month in reading Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi. A stunning follow up to her acclaimed debut Homegoing, it’s the story of Gifty, a fifth-year candidate in neuroscience at Stanford School of Medicine who is studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after a knee injury left him hooked on OxyContin. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed. Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her. Even as she turns to the hard sciences to unlock the mystery of her family’s loss, she finds herself hungering for her childhood faith, and grappling with the evangelical church in which she was raised. The book was an instant New York Times bestseller and a Read with Jenna book club pick. All are welcome!
VIRTUAL – Family Dancing with Brandon (Byram Shubert Library)
Tuesday, May 11, 4 – 5 p.m.
A little dancing never hurt anybody! Get into the dancing groove with Byram Shubert Library. All ages will have fun learning entertaining dance games during this energetic virtual program. Financial support provided by Friends of the Byram Shubert Library.
VIRTUAL – New Yorker Stories Discussion Group (Cos Cob Library)
Tuesday, May 11, 5 – 6:30 p.m.
On the second Tuesday of the month, Cos Cob Library welcomes Susan Boyar, a long-time facilitator at both the Cos Cob and Greenwich Libraries, to guide the group through a current New Yorker short story. Even though the stories are only three or four pages long, the group’s animated discussions often carry on into the evening! Come join us! Registrants will receive the featured story by email.
VIRTUAL – Osteoporosis: What Women Need to Know
Thursday, May 13, 12 – 1 p.m.
May is Osteoporosis Awareness Month! Learn the difference between osteopenia and osteoporosis and what you can do to help manage both through healthful lifestyle changes with Erica Christ, RD, CDE, Outpatient Dietitian at Greenwich Hospital. Don’t miss this important event!
VIRTUAL – Tai Chi with Ken Dolan
Thursday, May 13, 5 – 6 p.m.
Science shows that Tai Chi improves balance, concentration, flexibility, focus, attention, and learning. Join Tai Chi master Ken Dolan in this interactive session and tap into a path to improved health, strength, wisdom, and compassion. Sponsored by the Friends of Byram Shubert Library.
VIRTUAL – Proust Group (Byram Shubert)
Thursday, May 13, 5 – 6:30 p.m.
Marcel Proust is regarded by many as the greatest writer of the 20th century. The complete Remembrance of Things Past will be discussed methodically page by page, chapter by chapter, led by Fereshteh Priou. This program in association with Alliance Française, Greenwich.
VIRTUAL – Fiction Addiction Book Club
Monday, May 17, 6 – 7:30 p.m.
Join the Fiction Addiction Book Group virtually to discuss Less by Andrew Sean Greer, a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and national bestseller. The book was A New York Times Notable Book of 2017, a Washington Post Top Ten Book of 2017, and a San Francisco Chronicle Top Ten Book of 2017. A scintillating satire of the American abroad, a rumination on time and the human heart, a bittersweet romance of chances lost, by an author The New York Times has hailed as “inspired, lyrical,” “elegiac,” “ingenious.”
VIRTUAL – Foreign Affairs Book Discussion Group
Tuesday, May 18, 7 – 8:30 p.m.
In May, the Foreign Affairs Book Discussion Group is reading The Lands in Between: Russia vs. the West and the New Politics of Hybrid War by Mitchell Orenstein. Russia’s stealth invasion of Ukraine and its assault on the U.S. elections in 2016 forced a reluctant West to grapple with the effects of hybrid war. While most citizens in the West are new to the problems of election hacking, state-sponsored disinformation campaigns, influence operations by foreign security services, and frozen conflicts, citizens of the frontline states between Russia and the European Union have been dealing with these issues for years. This book contends that these “lands in-between” hold powerful lessons for Western countries. Western politics is becoming increasingly similar to the lands in between, where hybrid warfare has polarized parties and voters into two camps: those who support a Western vision of liberal democracy and those who support a Russian vision of nationalist authoritarianism. Increasingly, the political pathologies of these small, vulnerable, and backward states in Europe are our problems too. Come discuss with the group and learn more.
VIRTUAL – Brown Bag Book Club (Cos Cob Library)
Wednesday, May 19, 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 Susan that warrant special merit and discussion.
At this meeting, the group will be discussing The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett and Passing by Nella Larsen. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person’s decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins. As with her New York Times-bestselling debut The Mothers, Brit Bennett offers an engrossing page-turner about family and relationships that is immersive and provocative, compassionate and wise.
VIRTUAL – Specially Processed American Me: Behind the Creative Process of a Performance
Thursday, May 20, 7 – 8 p.m.
Join visual artist, designer, writer, and performer Jaime Sunwoo and composer, lyricist, and sound designer Matt Chilton for a unique view behind the creative process of their “surreal autobiography” titled Specially Processed American Me. The term “surreal autobiography” refers to storytelling through oral history, visual arts, and music. This lecture/performance, sponsored by the Friends of Greenwich Library, combines all these things to tell the fascinating story of how SPAM®, Hormel Foods’ canned meat, became a staple in Sunwoo’s upbringing through her grandmother’s experience in the Korean War. At the crossroads of American culture and assimilation, poverty and prosperity, war and peace, SPAM® becomes a complex symbol of the tensions within Asian-American and Pacific Islander identities. This program will be a virtual lecture, combining musical and dramatic excerpts. Sunwoo and Chilton will alternate presenting as they dive into their own processes, showing how their different art forms and media enrich their storytelling.
About Jaime Sunwoo: Sunwoo is a Korean-American multidisciplinary artist from Brooklyn, N.Y. She creates multimedia performances in galleries, theaters, and public spaces. Her works connect personal narratives to global histories through surreal storytelling. She studied art at Yale University, and is an alumnus of The Laundromat Project for socially engaged art. Her work has been seen at Park Avenue Armory, Abrons Art Center, BAX, JACK, The Tank, and Flux Factory.
About Matt Chilton: Chilton is a musician and sound designer from New York City. His works include FIELDWORK for mixed vocal/instrumental ensemble and architectural acoustics and a growing repertoire for overtone voice alongside music for chamber ensembles and electric bands. He has collaborated extensively with Jaime Sunwoo on past interdisciplinary projects including You Are The News Now, Equality Tea, and reGeneration Lab, and has live-scored Lisa Peterson & Denis O’Hare’s An Iliad at Atlas PAC and the Embassy of Greece in Washington, D.C.
VIRTUAL – Friends Friday Film Reel Talk: Lucky Logan
Friday, May 21, 7 – 8 p.m.
Don’t miss the Friday Friends Film Reel Talk Discussion of Logan Lucky. This exciting and fast-paced film can be found for free on the streaming service, Kanopy. Watch the movie from the comfort of your own home, and then join the Friends on Zoom to discuss! Trying to reverse a family curse, brothers Jimmy (Channing Tatum) and Clyde Logan (Adam Driver) set out to execute an elaborate robbery during the legendary Coca-Cola 600 race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. This movie was shot at Charlotte Motor Speedway during the actual NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 and the Bank of America 500, and also at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. In a fun twist, six NASCAR stars pop-up in non-driver cameo roles in the film. Access to Friends Friday Films virtual streaming is free to patrons with a Greenwich Library card, using Kanopy. This series is made possible by contributions from the Friends of Greenwich Library.
VIRTUAL – Meditation and Breathing with Gail
Tuesday, May 25, 5 – 6 p.m.
Come and enjoy essential meditation techniques that will help you be less stressed, embrace possibilities, and experience tranquility and joy.
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.
