There are places in America where it might be a challenge to find 50 people eager to immerse themselves in Civil War history and eminent scholars willing to lead them. The Vineyard is not such a place.
The Vineyard Haven Public Library has already lined up an impressive faculty and is now opening up limited seats for an intensive new seminar series that will start in January and last into the spring.
Gold Star for Libraries
The Vineyard Haven and West Tisbury libraries have been named “star” libraries in an annual national rating process conducted by the Library Journal. Only eight libraries in Massachusetts and 256 libraries throughout the United States were given the star rating, out of a possible 7,513 libraries.
The Vineyard Haven Public Library received a $3,000 grant from the American Library Association (ALA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to host Let’s Talk About It: Making Sense of the American Civil War, a five-part reading and discussion series. The library is one of 65 public libraries nationwide receiving grants to host the series which will encourage participants to consider the legacy of the Civil War and emancipation.
The Friends of the Vineyard Haven Public Library will present the first of their Sunday afternoon programs for the season on Sunday, Nov. 22 at 2 p.m. Author Nora Nevin and photographer Harvey Beth will be speaking about the Haiti PeaceQuilts Project. Refreshments will be served following the talk.
Going green has become a passion for Betty Burton, the adult programming coordinator at the Vineyard Haven Library. When asked where her interest came from Ms. Burton laughed, saying, “I was a child of the 70s, first of all.” She started composting when her children were growing up. Now she and her family have given up meat in favor of living on locally-grown produce, including foods from her own backyard. “It’s very important to me. We have a very small house. We grow our own vegetables,” Ms. Burton said.
Over the next several weeks, the Vineyard Haven Public Library will be showing and discussing Eyes on the Prize, the seven-part PBS documentary series that tells the story of the civil rights movement through news clips and interviews from the time it took place.
There will be several guest speakers. On the first evening Sheldon and Lucy Durr Hackney will be here.
