A panel discussion with all five 2021 Agatha Award nominees for best first novel
Wednesday, Nov. 3 at 7 p.m.
Meet the country’s best new mystery writers in this all-star panel discussion featuring all five nominees for this year’s Agatha Award for Best First Novel: Esme Addison (A Spell For Trouble), Tina deBellegarde (Winter Witness), Mary Keliikoa (Derailed), Erica Ruth Neubauer (Murder at the Mena House), and Laura Jensen Walker (Murder Most Sweet). Award-winning author Catriona McPherson will serve as moderator. Click here to register.
Holschuh is a resident of Wantastegok (Brattleboro, Vt.) and an independent historic and cultural researcher. He has served on the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs and is a public liaison and tribal historic preservation officer for the Elnu Abenaki Tribe, members of the contemporary Indigenous community in Vermont. Rich is founder and director of the Atowi Project. His work draws on indigenous history, linguistics, geography, and culture to share beneficial ways of seeing and being in relationship with place.
“Is Rape a Crime? A Memoir, an Investigation and a Manifesto”
Tuesday, Nov. 16 at 7 p.m.
Award-winning writer Michelle Bowdler (Executive Director of Health & Wellness at Tufts University) will discuss her memoir, which indicts how sexual violence has been addressed for decades in our society, asking whether rape is a crime given that it is the least reported major felony. Click here to register.
Do you need holiday gift book suggestions for the young readers in your life? Join the children’s librarians as they review their favorite new books of the year as well as some perennial favorites on Thursday, Nov. 18 at noon. This event is open to all adults. Email dleopold@minlib.net for Zoom invite.
Barry Van Dusen: Finding Sanctuary: An Artist Explorers the Nature of Mass Audubon
Monday, Nov. 22 at 7 p.m.
Over the course of four and a half years, nature artist Barry Van Dusen visited all 61 of Mass Audubon’s public wildlife sanctuaries, nature centers, and museums, producing drawings and paintings at each location. Follow his travels and share in his adventures from the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket to the mountain peaks of the Berkshires. Click here to register.
Lynne Reeves: Dangers of An Ordinary Night with fellow author Lisa Genova
Monday, Nov. 29 at 7 p.m.
The Dangers of an Ordinary Night is an exploration of the explosive family secrets that are often hidden in plain sight. Reeves is an internationally recognized family counselor, public speaker, teacher and writer of fiction and nonfiction. Genova is the bestselling author of numerous novels including Still Alice. Click here to register.
The Lincoln Public Library presents best-selling author David Baldacci via Zoom on Thursday, Dec. 9 at 7 p.m. He will be discussing his latest novel Mercy, the fourth installment in the Atlee Pine thriller series. Baldacci’s books are published in over 45 languages and in more than 80 countries, with 150 million copies sold worldwide and have been adapted for film and television. He is also the cofounder, along with his wife, of the Wish You Well Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting literacy efforts across America.
This program is sponsored by the Friends of the Lincoln Public Library in collaboration with the Tewksbury Public Library, public libraries across Massachusetts, and Wellesley Books. Free and open to all, but registration is required; click here to register.
The Lincoln Public Library will host a Zoom screening of the talk given at the Concord Museum in June by Harvard Professor Tiya Miles on her book, All She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake, on Thursday, Dec. 16 at 7 p.m. Lincoln author Ray Shepard will introduce the talk. All That She Carried is a National Book Award winner for 2021 and has been selected as one of the best books of 2021 by Time, Washington Post and New York Times. The sack — created by Rose, an enslaved woman, for her daughter, who at age nine was sold by their owner — was inherited by her great-granddaughter Ruth, who embroidered the story into the sack. Click here to join the Zoom meeting (passcode: 125443).
The First Parish Lincoln (FPL) Racial Justice Journey continues on Thursday, Jan. 6 from 7–9 p.m. with a Zoom screening of the PBS documentary “The Long Shadow,” which offers a summary of racism in America from its beginnings to recent times. Emmy Award- winning director Frances Causey traces her family’s legacy of plantation-owning in the South and continues into the 20th century. Click here to join the screening via Zoom (meeting ID: 987 9477 5010, passcode: 541766).
Hear award-winning humor writer, art law journalist, and lawyer Martha Lufkin of Lincoln read from her latest book of newspaper humor columns tackling everything from the Lincoln dump to the local schools to backtalk from teens, travel mishaps in Paris, and more. Martha will talk about her years writing for the Lincoln Journal, and her mother’s work as editor from 1957-1971 of the Fence Viewer, Lincoln’s former newspaper. All are welcome to join the event via Zoom; email gagnea@lincolntown.org to sign up.
Author Margaret Spence will speak about her latest novel Joyous Lies via Zoom on Tuesday, Feb. 15 at 7 p.m. Maelle Woolley, a shy botanist, prefers plants to people because they don’t suddenly disappear. Joyous Lies is a tale of family secrets straining the bonds of family love and lost ideals. Spence, a native of Australia, moved to the U.S. and earned a master’s degree in journalism. Her first novel Lipstick on the Strawberry was published in 2017. Click here to join the Zoom event (meeting ID: 870 9303 4809; passcode: 227284).
Three Lincoln authors with shared interests in justice, history, and the environment discuss how their Lincoln experiences have shaped their numerous writing projects on Thursday, March 3 at 7 p.m. The Zoom link will be posted on the Lincoln Public Library website closer to the event. The speakers are:
- Elise Lemire, author of Battle Green Vietnam: The 1971 March on Concord, Lexington, and Bostonand Black Walden: Slavery and Its Aftermath in Concord, Massachusetts
- Katie Ives, editor in chief of Alpinist. Imaginary Peaks: The Riesenstein Hoax and Other Mountain Dreams is her first book.
- Judy Polumbaum, University of Iowa professor emerita of journalism and mass communication and a former newspaper reporter and magazine writer. Lincoln figures prominently in her latest book, All Available Light: The Life and Legacy of Photographer Ted Polumbaum, a biography-memoir of her photojournalist-social activist father.
In 1781, Elizabeth Freeman, known as “Mum Bett,” successfully sued for her freedom from the bonds of slavery in a pivotal case argued before the Massachusetts courts. That same year, Quock Walker also sued for his freedom and won. The winning argument in both cases was that slavery was unconstitutional under the Massachusetts Constitution. Lincoln resident Ron Chester, a professor at the New England School of Law, will discuss these cases and their importance on Friday, March 4 at 1 p.m. Email gagnea@lincolntown.org to sign up for this Zoom session.
March with the Lincoln Minute Men along Battle Road at 2:45 p.m. or meet at the capture site at 3 p.m. where Paul Revere’s ride ended in Lincoln. See Revere, Samuel Prescott, William Dawes, Mary Hartwell, Catharine Louisa Smith, and Major Mitchell tell the true story, despite poetic efforts by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to tell a different tale. Music and musket fire. For all ages.
- Evacuation scenario at the home of William and Catharine Louisa Smith, 9:30 a.m. – noon.
- Battle reenactment at Parker’s Revenge, MMNHP, noon–1 p.m.
- Battle of Tower Park, 1200 Massachusetts Ave., Lexington, 4 p.m.
Families prepare to evacuate their homes on April 19, 1775. Later, hundreds of British and Provincial soldiers recreate the running battle along the deadly stretch of road through Lincoln, from Elm Brook Hill to the Lexington border. Then both sides regroup to battle again at Tower Park in Lexington.
A Lincoln resident during the Revolutionary War reminisces about the fateful early hours of April 19, 1775. Capt. William Smith arrives on horseback to alarm the citizens of Lincoln. Bells ring, drums roll, and families say anxious goodbyes, as the Lincoln Minute Men assemble for musket drill and firing, and receive their orders to march.
The Lincoln Minute Men salute the Patriots buried in the Old Meeting House Burying Ground as they emerge from the mists for roll call. Fifers play a lament and the muskets fire a volley. Then join the Minute Men on their walk to Concord along Sandy Pond Road (three miles) amid colonial music and musket fire for the parade in Concord starting at 9 a.m. All ages welcome.
The Lincoln Minute Men host fife and drum groups from far and wide in a musical performance for your enjoyment. Bring your picnic basket and lawn chairs for rousing entertainment. In case of rain, see the Parks and Rec website.
March with the Lincoln Minute Men and British Regulars from Pierce House to the Old Burying Ground on Lexington Road to honor the Patriot dead and the five British soldiers killed in Lincoln along the Battle Road. Mary Hartwell and Catharine Louisa Smith tell their stories of burying British soldiers, an enslaved soldier tells how he gained his freedom, and a British mother laments the loss of her son. Ceremonies include music and musket salutes.