Proudly serving Wendell, MA

May Events

Events in Brief

All month: Art in the Herrick Room: Some Eden, Art by Nina Keller

Every Tuesday: Adult Art Group. 5 p.m.

Every Wednesday: Movie. 4 p.m.; Yoga. 6:20 p.m.

Every Friday: LEGO. 4 p.m.

Every Sunday: Yoga. 10 a.m.

Mondays, June 2 and 16: Fiber Group / Mending Circle. 6:30 p.m.

Friday, June 13: Office Hour with Rep. Aaron Saunders. 1 p.m.

Saturday June 14: Summer Reading Kickoff- Level-up at your Library.  Lawn Games, Ice Cream,  DIY t-shirt. 1-4 p.m.

Tuesday June 17: Community Conversation: Accessibility in the Library. 7 p.m.

Wednesday June 18:  “Have you Seen Gordon?” Storytime. 10 a.m.

Tuesday, June 24: Adult Book Group. James McBride, Heaven and Earth Grocery Store. 10 a.m.

Wednesday June 25: Narwhal and Jelly Party- read aloud, craft  and Narwhal’s favorite snack, waffles! 10 a.m. Registration Required.

Friday, June 27: Friday Night at the Library. 5 to 7 p.m.

Summer Dates to put on the Calendar!

Friday July 18, 7-10 p.m. Wendell’s First Moth Ball: You are cordially invited to a Moth Ball: an evening to celebrate night creatures – Guests of Honor expected after 9p.m. with Adam Kolh’s Moth Observation Station, music, games, and fun. Moth/fancy dress encouraged! This event is still in the beginning stages, please be in touch if you want to volunteer at or be involved in planning…Flashlight Tag/ Indoor Mini Golf? Want to offer face painting?

Stone Circle Concerts 🎵 Join us for laid-back, family-friendly outdoor concerts at the Stone Circle behind the library.  Bring your picnic, blanket, or chair and soak in the evening vibes! ☔️ In case of rain, we’ll keep the groove going indoors at the Wendell Meetinghouse.

Wednesday 7/ 9  @ 6:30 pm:  Ants on a Log and Carrie Ferguson and the Grumpytime Club Band. Double Feature Family Concert!.

Thursday 7/31  @ 6:30 pm:  Hilltown Ham Hocks, a modern folk trio with old time roots with a repertoire of carefully-crafted originals and distinctive covers, the Hilltown Ham Hocks weave a rich tapestry of American folk, bluegrass, and old-time sounds

Tuesday 8/ 19 @ 6:30 pm: : The Faux Paws. With instrumentation that includes saxophone, banjo, fiddles, mandolin, foot percussion, guitar, and voices, The Faux Paws pack a vast amount of music and heart into a small package. Folk powerhouse brothers Andrew and Noah VanNorstrand bring a deep, energetic groove to traditional and original old time, Irish, and Quebecois tunes. During their seventeen years leading popular contra dance band Great Bear, the brothers have traveled the world and recorded nine albums of original music. Noah’s jaw-dropping fiddle playing technique includes combining rhythmic “chopping” on the fiddle with foot percussion, while Andrew’s fiddle and guitar playing brings both sweetness and structure to the mix. The brothers are joined by Chris Miller on saxophone and banjo.  Miller is also known from his Grammy-nominated Cajun/zydeco band the Revelers, but the Faux Paws allows him to stretch out musically in many different directions. Having played together as a trio for years now, Andrew, Noah, and Chris have developed elastic, genre-transcending arrangements of traditional music, bringing in influences of rock and pop to their eclectic folk music base. A typical set shifts from intricately arranged compositions to completely spontaneous bursts of improvisation, but the music is always infectious, taking the audience along for a wild ride.

Crankie Show with Moo Butler

Friday June 6 at 5 p.m.

3 shows, 30 minutes

Come join us to experience 3 crankies written and performed by Wendell resident Moo Butler.

So what is a crankie you might ask? Well a crankie is an old form of storytelling originated in the 1800’s. Imagine you have a box, it can be big or small, and there is a viewing window on one side of the box. Inside of the box is a long illustrated scroll that is would onto two dowels that have cranks attached on top. Then as someone turns one of the cranks the scroll moves along from one dowel to the other. Crankies were the first forms of moving visual stories and these magical simple devices are often accompanied by music, song, or spoken word.

Moo Butler (they/them) is a 27 year old interdisciplinary artist and performer who loves all things circus! Moo is also a nature enthusiast who is eager to learn as much as they can about the nature world and loves to send their time exploring the Wendell woods. After taking a 7 year unconventional path for their education, alternating between circus school and art school, Moo graduated from Hampshire a College in May 2023 with a Bachelor of Arts. Moo learned to make crankies in a crankie class at Hampshire College and fell in love with the art form because it combined many different mediums that they are passionate about: making things with their hands, illustration, storytelling and performance.

Summer Reading Kick-Off

Saturday June 14, 1-4 p.m.

Get ready for another Summer of fun at the Wendell Free Library.

SIGN UP : pick up your readings logs, calendar of events, first prize ticket, choice of vinyl sticker or holographic bookmark with theme artwork while supplies last.

PLAY: GIANT CHUTES & LADDERS / CORNHOLE / LADDER BALL / CHALK ART / BUBBLES / &MORE

ENJOY: AN ICE CREAM CONE or POPSICLE

MAKE: BLOCK PRINT A SUMMER READING T-SHIRT or TOTE

**REGISTRATION REQUIRED FOR T-SHIRT /TOTE (let us know preferred size or byo) & ICE CREAM; OTHERWISE A DROP-IN EVENT

LIBRARIES NEED FRIENDS – Thank You to the Friends of the Wendell Free Library for their support of this program

*to register: wendell@cwmars.org, 978-544-3559, front desk

Looking for volunteers to help with different stations at this event. Please let us know if you can help out for an hour or two.

Community Conversation on Improving Library Accessibility

Tuesday June 17, 7-8 p.m.

Please register.

A more accessible library?  Come talk to us about it!

The Wendell Free Library wants to hear from you how we can increase the accessibility of our facilities, services, and programs. Through a second round of grant funding from the ALA, we have received $10,000 to improve the library experience of our community members with limited mobility, vision, and hearing and other dissabilities. Please join us for a discussion on the best use of these grant funds.

Tues. June 17 at 7 p.m. at the Wendell Free Library and on zoom.

REGISTER for one session  by email wendell@cwmars.org, Phone 978-544-3559.  Please let us know any accommodations needed to help you participate in this conversation.

The first round of funding was used to finance the new automatic push button doors at the library entrance, ADA updates to the bathrooms, and new scent free soap dispensers! (awaiting installation).

This event is offered as part of Libraries Transforming Communities: Accessible Small and Rural Communities, an initiative of the American Library Association (ALA)in collaboration with the Association for Rural & Small Libraries(ARSL).

Wednesdays at 4 p.m. Matinee Movies.

Enjoy a variety of movies all month long in the Herrick Room. Come early for Popcorn.

June 4th (rescheduled from May 7th ):THE HIRED HAND

(1971; Peter Fonda, director; starring Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, Verna Bloom)Following the success of Easy Rider, Fonda made this “moody, expressionistic and autumnal” western about a man who, after spending several years roaming the west, decides to return home to his family. A commercial and critical flop in 1971, it has been restored, re-released, and reassessed in recent years, building a sizable following of admirers and often cited as a quintessential revisionist western. Featuring excellent performances by Verna Bloom and Warren Oates, breathtaking cinematography, and a perfect score by Bruce Langhorne.

June 11th: THE PHANTOM THREAD

The Phantom Thread features an outstanding performance by Daniel Day-Lewis as Reynolds Woodstock, a domineering and obsessive fashion designer who creates dresses for members of high society in 1950s London. Alma Elson, a young waitress, becomes his model, muse, and lover, contending with Reynolds’ difficult personality as well as his sister Cyril, who manages his fashion house and tries to protect him from anything that might interfere with his work. Phantom Thread appeared on dozens of critics’ top ten lists in 2017 and was nominated for six Academy Awards.

(2017; Paul Thomas Anderson, director; starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Lesley Manville, Vicky Krieps)

June 18th: CAROL

Based on the 1952 novel The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith, Carol chronicles the

relationship between an aspiring female photographer and an older woman going through a divorce in 1950s New York City, a time when lesbian relationships were viewed as illegal. An exceptionally sensitive portrait of a fraught love affair, as well as a loving homage to 1950s cinema, Carol was nominated for six Academy Awards, and ranked by the British Film Institute as the best LGBTQ film of all time.

(2015; Todd Haynes, director; starring Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Sarah Paulson)

June 25th: NIGHT OF THE HUNTER

A singular, uncategorizable film, Night of the Hunter has made the journey from forgotten commercial and critical failure, to cult favorite, to perennial mainstay of “all-time best” lists (including second-best film of all time by Cahiers du Cinema!). Roger Ebert: “By setting his story in an invented movie world outside conventional realism, Laughton gave it a timelessness… It is one of the most frightening of movies, with one of the most unforgettable of villains, and on both of those scores, it holds up well after four decades”. With a lyricism reminiscent of silent films from previous decades, Night of the Hunter is haunting, strange and yet familiar, like a folksong or fairy tale that has been told for hundreds of years.

(1955; Charles Laughton, director; starring Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish)

The Gentle Healthy Bones and Balance Exercise Program

Wednesdays 10:00-11:00 am and Fridays 10:00-11:00 am

Presented by the Wendell Free Library via ZOOM.

For seniors who wish to improve or maintain strength, mobility, flexibility,

balance and bone health.

To join, please contact:

Marianne Vinal

Email: mariannevinal@gmail.com

Telephone: 978-544-6122 call or text

or

The Wendell Free Library

Email: Wendell@cwmars.org

The monetary support of the Friends of the Wendell Free Library makes so much possible!!