Adult Events

The Oliver Wolcott Library offers a wide range of programming for adults, from continuing series like Monday Scholars,

to lectures, book discussions, and author talks. All events are free and open to all.

Continue your journey of lifelong learning with us!

 

 

"A Poem in Your Pocket"

Celebrate National Poetry Month and William Shakespeare's birth month with A Poem in Your Pocket! For the entire month of April, we will dedicate a display to The Bard himself. In addition to admiring our wide selection of Shakespearean books and DVDs, all are welcome to snatch up a "pocket poem," which features a rhyming couplet from one of Shakespeare's many plays and sonnets.

Can you recall the lines right off the dome?

Or do you need to check out Shakespeare's poems?

Can you recall who said the rhyme?

Come to OWL for a grand old time!

 

 

A William Faulkner Seminar - with Mark Scarbrough

Zoom Participants:  Zoom Link - click here on Fridays at 10:30 AM beginning April 5 to Zoom to this seminar.

There’s nothing like a Faulkner novel: breath-taking yet suffocating, untamed yet structured. The prose is haunting; the diction, erudite yet home-spun. And the plots strike at the heart of the tragedy and comedy that is our U. S. project. Then there’s the man: an uneducated alcoholic, ill-prepared to be a Nobel laureate. The mere mention of Faulkner strikes fear into undergrads! But skip the jitters and join us to explore one of the greatest American authors. In six weeks, we’ll cover three masterworks written within a ten-year span. We’ll discuss the art, history, and culture surrounding the novels. We’ll also get a too-close-for-comfort glimpse at U. S. rancor, Southern defeat, and the happy ending Faulkner believed was the sum of human existence. (Note that the first novel should be read in its entirety for the first session.)

• Reading Schedule:
  4/05/2024 -  The Wild Palms (If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem 1939)
  4/12/2024 -  The Wild Palms (If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem 1939)
  4/19/2024 -  Light in August (1932), chapters 1 – 11
  4/26/2024 -  Light in August (1932), chapters 12 – 21
  5/03/2024 - The Sound and the Fury (1929), first two chapters 
  5/10/2024 - The Sound and the Fury (1929), completed 
  

Books are available at OWL to borrow plus instant e-book and e-audio copies are available as well.

Look for the texts available through Vintage/Vintage International. Faulkner’s novels are prone to typos, editorial errors, and prose misalignments. Scholars have recently taken on the daunting task of bringing the works into sync with Faulkner’s typescripts and hand-written corrections. The library should have copies of the three novels. If you’re purchasing them, please support a local bookstore. 

 

 

 

About Monday Scholars:
Join us in April on Zoom as explore two “Great Trials” of World History: The Nuremberg Trials and The Leopold & Loeb Trail.  Together we will watch a ½ hour video lecture on the trial and then OWL’s Caroline Ugurlu will lead everyone in a discussion of what we just watched. 

About the course: 

“Apart from being terrific theater, great trials can shape history,” Professor Linder notes. “They can change attitudes and reinforce ideals. And they can provide a remarkably clear window for observing societies, both past and present.” But these lectures are about so much more than just facts and narrative. They’re a chance for us to explore the human stories involving innocence and guilt, truth and deception, life and death. These are trials that don’t simply end with their verdict but have a power that reverberates throughout history.

April 8: The Nuremberg Trials
No trial, according to Professor Linder, provides a better basis for understanding the nature and causes of evil than the war crime trials in Nuremberg from 1945 to 1949. In this lecture, we will focus on the first of 12 trials, regarded by scholars as “The Trial of the Major War Criminals.”
 
April 22: The Leopold & Loeb Trial
The Leopold & Loeb Trial introduces us to the nation’s most famous defense lawyer, Clarence Darrow, with a focus on a trial involving a “thrill killing” by two rich and intelligent teenagers. Central to this lecture are Darrow’s impassioned efforts to save the confessed murderers from the gallows by challenging the morality of capital punishment.

Click here to read more about this two-part series.

 

 

 

Louise Glück: A Poetry Discussion

In-Person Registration: Click here to attend in-person.

We celebrate Poetry Month and Louise Glück’s birthday with this special poetry discussion.

Richard Deming, poet and friend of Louise Glück, will lead an exploratory discussion of a selection of Glück poems. Poems will be available beginning April 1. 

Considered by many to be one of America’s most talented contemporary poets, Glück is known for her poetry’s technical precision, sensitivity, and insight into loneliness, family relationships, divorce, and death. The poet Robert Hass has called her “one of the purest and most accomplished lyric poets now writing.” In 2020 she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal."

She was the author of two collections of essays and thirteen books of poems. In addition to the Nobel Prize in Literature, she was also awarded the National Humanities Medal, the Pulitzer Prize for The Wild Iris, the National Book Award for Faithful and Virtuous Night, the National Book Critics Circle Award for The Triumph of Achilles, the Bollingen Prize for Poetry, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Poems 1962–2012, and the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets.

RICHARD DEMING is the Director of Creative Writing and a Senior Lecturer in English at Yale University. He is an award-winning poet and critic, whose work explores the intersections of literature, philosophy, and visual culture. He is the author of six books, including Day for Night, Touch of Evil, and Art of the Ordinary.

 

 

The Litchfield Land Trust: Preserving the Future of Litchfield

Zoom Participants:  Zoom Link - click here on April 25 at 7 PM to Zoom to this talk.

All of us together are the Litchfield Land Trust. Find out what the Land Trust does and how it collaborates locally and regionally. Learn why the Trust's work and partnerships with private landowners is essential for a vibrant future.

The Land Trust's Executive Director, Dean Birdsall will identify currently protected lands as well as regions of strategic importance for future considerations. He will also discuss different approaches to land protections and how to work more effectively as individuals and as a community to appreciate the wonderful natural resources in northwestern Connecticut.

Dean Birdsall is the Litchfield Land Trust Executive Director. Previously, he served on the Land Trust's Board including serving as the Stewardship Chairperson. He is a passionate outdoor enthusiast, environmental advocate, and committed community volunteer. He lives in Litchfield and is the proud father of two daughters. 

 

 

Move Your Mind; Move Your Body

Zoom Participants:  Zoom Link - click here on Tuesdays at 10:15 am to Zoom to the Event.

Note: This Class is designed for senior women.

The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2021 to 2030 The Decade For Healthy Ageing. The OWL has always been committed to expanding minds and now we would like to help our community expand their physical strength. 

Join Nancy Schuler in this exercise class for senior women. You can attend the class in person, here at the OWL, or online in the privacy of your home. The class features stretching and exercises that can be done in a chair or standing, and lifting of 1 or 2 lb. weights. All exercises are gentle and easy to understand. Exercise has been proven to help one's cognitive abilities, blood pressure, insomnia, digestive issues, depression, strength and independence. The Alzheimer's, Diabetes and Heart Associations all recommend exercise for healthy ageing.

No prior experience is necessary. Bring in a set of light weights for this class - 1 to 2 lbs.

 

 

 Mystery Puzzle Kit - Murder in the Mountains

In honor of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s 165th birthday, this month’s take and make allows you to play Sherlock! Assume the role of detective and decipher the clues to solve a murder.

You will play as Daphne, a detective who is embarking on a long-awaited getaway at a cabin in the mountains with six of your old childhood friends. When one of your friends is suddenly found dead on the first night of your stay, you take it upon yourself to figure out who is responsible for the murder.

It is up to you to follow the clues included in your kit and uncover the mystery of your friend’s death. This activity can be completed on your own or with a small group. 
*While supplies last

 

 

Land & Sky in Printmaking & Photography

In-Person Registration: Click here to attend in-person.

Come and enjoy a discussion with artists Sally Frank and Wendy Costa who will talk about what inspires their work and the various printmaking and photography techniques they use to create images.

Click here to read about Sally and Wendy's joint exhibit in the Jamie Gagarin Gallery on exhibit through May 30.

 

 

Non-Fiction Discussion Group

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Thursday, May 9

Meeting will be held in the Library's Jamie Gagarin Community Room.

Caste: The Origin of our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson

Beyond race or class, a powerful caste system influences people’s lives and the nation’s fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, the author explores what underlies caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, and stigma. Using riveting stories about people, she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. Moderated by Laura

 

 

 

 

Fiction Discussion Group

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Thursday, May 9

Fiction Group: 3:30 pm 

Meeting will be held in the Library's Jamie Gagarin Community Room.

Joan is Okay by Weike Wang

Joan is a thirty-something ICU doctor at a busy New York City hospital. Her parents were originally from
China. She is intensely devoted to her work and happily solitary, but family, neighbors and co-workers
try to shape her life according to their cultural and social expectations. Moderated by Cindy 

 

 

 

 

A Fashion Show

In-Person Space is limited. Registration is required. Register here

Want to dress with style? Have fun with vintage? Get some new tips and inspiration? Have you ever wondered what it's like to shop at a consignment store?

Join us as we answer those questions and highlight some fabulous outfits from Rachel's Quality Consignment Shop. Learn how to navigate the racks and spot true treasure to discover a variety of stylish brand items for a fraction of their original costs. A few of our picks will be modeled for you! 

 

 

Meet the Author: Richard Deming 

In-Person Registration: Click here to attend in-person.

“. . . inspired meditations . . . The lucid prose is matched by the depth of insight . . . Profound and often achingly beautiful, this makes for great company.” —Publishers Weekly

About This Exquisite Loneliness: 

In This Exquisite Loneliness: What Loners, Outcasts, and the Misunderstood Can Teach Us About Creativity Richard Deming turns an eye toward that unwelcome feeling, both in his own experiences and the lives of six groundbreaking figures, to find the context of loneliness and to see what some people have done to navigate this profound sense of discomfort. Deming explores how loneliness has served as fuel for an intense creative desire that has forged some of the most original and innovative art and writing of the twentieth century.

Click here to read more about this talk.

Books are available at OWL to borrow and the title is available as an instant e-book and e-audio.

 

 

Poetry Critique Club

In-Person Space is limited. Registration is required. Register here

Calling all poets! Have you been in search of constructive feedback to help further your poetry endeavors? Then OWL’s new Poetry Critique Club is for you.

Each month we will focus on poetry surrounding a specific prompt, so write your poetry ahead of time and come prepared to share! Each attendee should limit themselves to one poem per meeting. Bring 10 hard copies of your work to share with other members. If you are unable to print copies at home, we can help you make copies at the library.

5/21 Prompt - Catharsis

Note: This is a critique group focused on providing constructive feedback, so come prepared to hear a variety of comments about your work.

 

 

Exploring Smith & Welty - Led by Mark Schenker

Zoom Participants:  Zoom Link - click here on Wednesdays at 2 PM May 22 & June 19 to Zoom to these discussions.

Mark Schenker returns to the Oliver Wolcott Library to lead discussions on two 20th c. American novels by women: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943) by Betty Smith (1896-1972) and The Optimist’s Daughter (1972) by Eudora Welty (1909-2001). Despite their differences in setting—Brooklyn in the early decades of the 20th century and rural Mississippi in the mid-20th century—these two prize-winning novels use autobiographical material to engage issues of family life, the complex nature of the past, and the transcendence of grief.

The result: an old-fashioned coming-of-age tale of young Francie Nolan and a more complex belated coming-of-age story of 40-something Laura McKelva Hand. 

Dr. Mark Schenker is a retired dean from Yale College. Born and raised in New York City, he received his PhD in English Literature from Columbia University and has taught at Columbia, New York University, Trinity College (Hartford), and Yale University. He was the recipient of the 2001 Wilbur Cross Award for Outstanding Humanities Scholar, presented by the Connecticut Humanities Council.

 

 

Roving Reporter Series With Nancy Schuler

 

 

In our Roving Reporter Video Series, our Senior Services Specialist, Nancy Schuler, will be asking seniors one question a month for a video collage. Don’t worry, it won’t be “what’s the meaning of life?”

 

Her first question for January is: “On what car did you learn to drive?"
Click here to watch a video of the responses. We hope you enjoy hearing what our seniors have to say.

February’s question is: “What was your first job?”

Click here to watch a video of the responses.

March’s question is: “What was your favorite age or era?”

Click here to watch a video of the responses.

 

 

Writers & Readers: An OWL Book Club

New, fresh, and engaging, OWL's Writers & Readers Book Club promises to connect you with celebrated authors who will lead us in a discussion of a selected book title. 

Throughout the year, a high-profile author will engage and explore their work with us...LIVE and IN PERSON!

We will have extra copies of the book available for you to borrow from OWL at least one month prior to the event. Read the book--then discuss it with the author! 

We hope you will share our excitement about this new initiative to connect writers with readers!

Click here to see our upcoming authors!

 

 

FUTURE EVENTS:

 

About Our Zoom Events:

All of our Virtual Zoom Events are live. They are not recorded. To participate/join the event, you need to use the exact link connected to the event. Once you click on the link at the specified date and time, you will be prompted to open Zoom, the virtual meeting program we are using. All you need is an internet connection and a device or computer with a webcam and audio. Most computers have built-in webcams. No passwords or confirmation codes, just click the link and follow the prompts.

 

More security, more privacy: In response to concerns about privacy in a virtual meeting space, we have enabled additional security features in Zoom and updated our meeting links to be protected, private, and secure. These new, unique links can also be accessed through our e-newsletters. To receive secure information regarding these events, please subscribe to our e-newsletter! Click here to learn more about our e-newsletter offerings.