“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).
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.
The Lincoln Democratic Town Committee will hold a caucus on Monday, March 7 from 7–8:30 p.m. (Zoom room opens at 6:30) to elect five delegates and four alternates to the 2022 Massachusetts Democratic Party Convention in Worcester on June 4. All Democrats registered in Lincoln are eligible not only to vote but also to be a delegate. Youth, minorities, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ individuals who are not elected as a delegate or alternate may apply to be an add-on delegate to the caucus or at www.massdems.org. See the Lincoln Dems website for more information and click here to register for the caucus (after registering, you’ll receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting).
The Lincoln PTO will hold a debate featuring candidates running in the March 28 town election on Wednesday, March 16 from 7–9 p.m. The event will take place in the newly renovated Brooks Auditorium and will also be live-streamed and recorded.
Moderating the event will be PTO co-chair Rob Stringer and former PTO president Carol Kasper. All of the candidates for the four contested races (Select Board, Lincoln School Committee, L-S School Committee, and Planning Board) have said they will participate, as have most of those who are running uncontested. “We really want everyone to get to know all the candidates,” Stringer said.
Each candidate will have two minutes to introduce themselves and will then face questions from the moderators. There will also be Q&A opportunities for the audience, probably with questions written down and sent to the moderators as with recent Town Meetings.
National issues have trickled down into local politics in many cities and towns, “but we want to make sure it stays civil and nobody feels attacked from the right or the left. We are still neighbors,” Stringer said.
Details and online links will be announced closer to the event.
The Lincoln Public Library will host a virtual LGBTQ+ author panel on Wednesday, June 1 at 7 p.m. via Zoom with Emery Lee, Timothy Janovsky, Katee Robert, and Olivia Waite. Join us for an inside look into the writing process and how the authors connect with the LGBTQ+ community with their words and stories. Free and open to all but advance registration is required.
The library will host a Summer Reading Program kickoff party on Wednesday, June 15 from 3:30–5:30 p.m. There will be ice cream, crafts, tattoos, balloon sculpting, Ed the magician, and more. Summer Reading Challenges and book lists will be available. The event will take place on the library lawn (we will move indoors if the weather is uncooperative). All ages welcome! Call the library at 781-259-8465 ext. 4 for more information.
There will be a second Zoom conversation on “The Impact of Local Authors Writing for the LGBTQ+ Community” with Bren Bataclan, Anna Burke, Federico Erebia, and Jane C. Esther on Thursday, June 30 at 7 p.m. via Zoom. Free and open to all but advance registration is required.
On Wednesday, Aug. 3 from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., everyone is invited to take part in the Library Crawl. The challenge is to visit as many libraries as you can and take a picture of yourself with a designated item in each library in a 21st-century scavenger hunt. Download your Library Crawl passport with library locations and photo ops.
This is an event for all ages – all you need is a love of libraries and a way to get from place to place. Post your pictures and tag the libraries at #mlncrawl2022. Each library will have handouts and giveaways. Show your pictures to a librarian, get a prize, and see how many you can collect. Start and end wherever you like on the self-guided crawl.
Participating Minuteman Library Network libraries are Arlington Robbins & Arlington Fox Branch, Ashland, Bacon Free (Natick), Concord & Fowler Branch, Dedham & Endicott Branch, Framingham & McAuliffe Branch, Lexington (Cary), Lincoln, Maynard, Morrill Memorial Library (Norwood), Morse Institute Library (Natick), Needham, Newton, Sudbury, Wayland, Wellesley Main, Wellesley Hills, Wellesley Fells, and Westwood Main & Islington Branch.
The Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee is hosting four virtual public forums to review the Bicycle & Pedestrian Master Plan draft and collect feedback to improve the plan. There will also be a short presentation about the master plan at the State of the Town meeting in November.
The master plan, which was drafted by BPAC in consultation with the Planning Department, the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, and other town committees and departments, aims to make Lincoln to be more safe, green and accessible for residents and visitors traveling by foot and bike.
The public forums each focus on one region of Lincoln, but the BPAC will review the overall plan at each forum and are happy to discuss any region of town at any meeting if participants desire.
- Thursday, Oct. 13 at 7:30 p.m. — North Lincoln (Route 2 and north). Zoom link.
- Thursday, Oct. 20 at 7:30 p.m. — South Lincoln (Route117 and south). Zoom link.
- Wednesday, Oct. 26 at 7:30 p.m. — East Lincoln (east of Lincoln Road/Bedford Road, south of Route 2 and north of Route117.) Zoom link.
- Wednesday, Nov. 2 at 7:30 p.m. — West Lincoln (west of Lincoln Road/Bedford Road, south of Route 2 and north of Route117.) Zoom link.
The Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee is hosting four virtual public forums to review the Bicycle & Pedestrian Master Plan draft and collect feedback to improve the plan. There will also be a short presentation about the master plan at the State of the Town meeting in November.
The master plan, which was drafted by BPAC in consultation with the Planning Department, the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, and other town committees and departments, aims to make Lincoln to be more safe, green and accessible for residents and visitors traveling by foot and bike.
The public forums each focus on one region of Lincoln, but the BPAC will review the overall plan at each forum and are happy to discuss any region of town at any meeting if participants desire.
- Thursday, Oct. 13 at 7:30 p.m. — North Lincoln (Route 2 and north). Zoom link.
- Thursday, Oct. 20 at 7:30 p.m. — South Lincoln (Route117 and south). Zoom link.
- Wednesday, Oct. 26 at 7:30 p.m. — East Lincoln (east of Lincoln Road/Bedford Road, south of Route 2 and north of Route117.) Zoom link.
- Wednesday, Nov. 2 at 7:30 p.m. — West Lincoln (west of Lincoln Road/Bedford Road, south of Route 2 and north of Route117.) Zoom link.
The Walden Woods Project is hosting “Silent Spring Revolution: A Conversation with Douglas Brinkley” on Wednesday, Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. via Zoom. In his newest book, New York Times bestselling author and acclaimed historian Douglas Brinkley chronicles the rise of environmental activism during the 1960s. Join us to learn more about Silent Spring Revolution and Brinkley’s discoveries during the writing process. There will be a live audience Q&A. Register here. This event is sponsored by the Walden Woods Project, Concord Festival of Authors, and RESTORE: The North Woods.