Category: News

Dystopian Tropes from an Indigenous Perspective: In Conversation with Waubgeshig Rice

Tuesday, February 11th at 7:00 PM — register here!

You’re invited to a riveting conversation with bestselling author Waubgeshig Rice to chat about his newest book Moon of the Turning Leaves, the hotly anticipated sequel to the bestselling novel Moon of the Crusted Snow: a brooding story of survival, resilience, Indigenous identity, and rebirth. Register now for a thrilling conversation!

About the Author:  Waubgeshig Rice is an author and journalist originally from Wasauksing First Nation. His books include the Independent Publishers Book Award-winning short story collection Midnight Sweatlodge and the national bestselling novel Moon of the Crusted Snow. Reporting for CBC News for the bulk of his journalism career, in 2014 he received the Anishinabek Nation’s Debwewin Citation for excellence in First Nation Storytelling, and from 2018 to 2020, he hosted Up North, CBC Radio’s afternoon show for northern Ontario.

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Blind Date With a Book

Go on a blind date with a book this month! How? It’s easy:
 
• Stop by the library and visit our Blind Date display.
• No peeking now, don’t unwrap your new book just yet.
• Check the book out at the circulation desk.
• Read and enjoy.
• Rate the book with the comment slip inside and leave your slip in basket at circulation desk.
• Most importantly, have fun! 

How We Create Pandemics, From Our Bodies to Our Beliefs with Smithsonian Curator Sabrina Sholts

Tuesday, February 4th at 2:00 PM — register here!

Join us for this enlightening presentation with Smithsonian curator Sabrina Sholts as she talks about how the very fact of being human increases our pandemic risks—and gives us the power to save ourselves.

The COVID-19 pandemic won’t be our last—because what makes us vulnerable to pandemics also makes us human. That is the uncomfortable but all-too-timely message of The Human Disease: How We Create Pandemics, From Our Bodies to Our Beliefs, which travels through history and around the globe to examine how and why pandemics are an inescapable threat of our own making. Drawing on dozens of disciplines—from medicine, epidemiology, and microbiology to anthropology, sociology, ecology, and neuroscience—as well as a unique expertise in public education about emerging infectious diseases, biological anthropologist Sabrina Sholts identifies the human traits and tendencies that double as pandemic liabilities, from the anatomy that defines us to the misperceptions that divide us. A presentation you don’t want to miss, register now!

About the Author:

Sabrina Sholts is a biological anthropologist and Curator of Biological Anthropology at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (NMNH). Her research explores intersections of human, animal, and environmental health in the past and present. She received her PhD in Anthropology at UC Santa Barbara and was a postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley in Integrative Biology and at Stockholm University in Biophysics and Biochemistry. Sholts has published widely in academic journals including American Journal of Biological AnthropologyEnvironmental Health PerspectivesJAMA, PNAS, Scientific ReportsProceedings of the Royal Society B, and Nature Ecology & Evolution, and written for popular audiences in Scientific American and Smithsonian Magazine. She was named as a World Economic Forum Young Scientist in 2019. In addition, she was Lead Curator of the exhibition Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World at the NMNH (2018-2022) and a scientific advisor for the related exhibition Épidémies: Prendre soin du vivant at the musée des Confluences in Lyon, France (2024-2025).

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Theater Program for Adults

This 10-week series of classes is led by Beth Young, who has many years experience as a writer, actor, and director. The classes are a fun way to meet new people and learn new skills. If you have ever dreamed of writing for the stage, or acting on it, join us!

In April, the classes culminate in a performance with a live audience to celebrate your accomplishment. No experience is necessary, all are welcome. Please register in advance for the full 10-week series of classes. Mondays from 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm in the Meeting Room.