Programs

Join us for 45 minutes of movies, songs and fun. Two short films will be shown along with marching and coloring. This program is for ages 3-7. Space is limited; Please sign up beginning Monday, February 6th.

This hands-on program gives children a chance to think like a paleontologist and explore the world of dinosaurs. Children will interact with real and model fossils, study a simulated dinosaur trackway, test their ideas about how it was made and excavate a replica field site. This program is limited to 24 children, ages 4-10. Children ages 4 and 5 must be accompanied by an adult. Register beginning Monday, February 6th.

Come anytime between 9:30-12:30. Use your imagination to build, build, build. For ages 4 and up. Girls welcome too! Parents will need to stay with younger children please. No registration required.

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells--taken without her knowledge-became one of the most important tools in medicine. Author Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the "colored" ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells; from Henrietta's small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live and struggle with the legacy of her cells. Books will be available at the circulation desk. Please register.  

This program is a potpourri of musical levels and ages, giving the students a chance to perform in front of a live audience “one more time.” Music teachers wishing to involve their students should call Bonnie Smith at 295-7032. All are welcome to attend the free performances. No registration is necessary but call to confirm the performance if the weather is frightful.

For over 25 years Amari has performed as part of Sunday Musicales at the Library. This year Amari will feature string trio Emily Anthony, Patricia Petersen, and Robert Champlin, with guest pianist, Dawn Chung. The music will include a string trio by Beethoven, American folk song arrangements, and a piano quartet by Mozart. The library will be open for this program only. No registration required but seating is limited. Doors open at 2:30 P.M. Sponsored by the North Kingstown Arts Council.

A romantic comedy about a family traveling to the French capital for business. The party includes a young engaged couple forced to confront the illusion that a life different from their own is better. PG-13, 94 min. Registration required.

In the 49th book in the 87th Precinct series, detectives Steve Carella and Artie Brown are searching for the killer of a nun. Books available; please register.

This program is the second in a series at the library that will examine the Local Food Movement and how it is being played out in Rhode Island.

Richard Greenwood, PhD, Deputy Director of the RI Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission will present his slide show “Out to Pasture: The History of Rhode Island Dairy Farms”. This historical overview of dairy farming in a changing landscape provides intriguing insights into the evolution of our attitudes about our food, our land, and ourselves.

Jim Hines is the Executive Director of Rhody Fresh, the Rhode Island Dairy Farms Cooperative. He will discuss the collection, processing and distribution of the fresh milk that is produced on the nine farms in Rhode Island that make up this collaborative.
Please register for this program.

Thursdays 4-5:00 P.M.
March 8, 15, 29, April 5, 12

For ages 5 and up. Bring your imagination! Please Register by calling the Young Readers' Department beginning February 27th. Space is limited.

This musical program embraces Irish history and culture. Hughie Purcell, Phil Edmonds and Mary King will play guitar, fiddle, banjo, button accordion and tin whistle. The Celtic soul is alive and well in the stories and songs you’ll hear and are sure to bring a smile to all who attend! As a special treat, dancers from the Kelly School of Irish Dance will perform Irish step dancing. A perfect way for the whole family to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. The library will be open for this event only. Please register to let us know you are coming.

Join us for a fun filled hour of St Paddy’s day crafts, music and a special treat. For ages 5 and up. Please register beginning March 1st, 294-3306, x5. Space is limited.

Thanks to his eccentric Uncle Phineas, 12-year-old Sky Weathers is proficient with traps, riddles, and puzzles, and he knows much about supposedly mythical monsters like the Echo, Shadow Wargs, and Edgewalkers When Sky's family moves back to his childhood hometown of Exile, these skills come in handy after he discovers that an ancient evil, long trapped in Exile, is about to break free. Teaming up with a group of would-be monster hunters, Sky unlocks his hidden abilities and fights shape-changing creatures, carnivorous plants, and more, while dealing with the day-to-day reality of school bullies and antagonistic teachers. Please register for this book discussion by calling the Young Readers' Department at 294-3306, x5.

Caleb’s Crossing is the 2012 Reading Across Rhode Island selection. Pulitzer Prize winning author Geraldine Brooks wove the novel around this fact: In 1665, a young man from Martha’s Vineyard became the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College. The narrator of the story is Bethia Mayfield, who lives in the tiny settlement of Great Harbor amid a small band of pioneers and Puritans. At twelve, she encounters Caleb, the young son of a chieftain, and the two forge a tentative, secret friendship that draws each into the alien world of the other. This two-person readers’ theatre presentation by Living Literature is based on scenes from the book. Living Literature has been celebrating the written word through readers' theatre-style performances of non-dramatic writing since 1996. Please register for this program.

This program is a potpourri of musical levels and ages, giving the students a chance to perform in front of a live audience “one more time.” Music teachers wishing to involve their students should call Bonnie Smith at 295-7032. All are welcome to attend the free performances.

Ann Hood’s first novel, Somewhere Off the Coast of Maine, was published in 1987. She has since written over a dozen books and numerous short stories and essays. She will read from two novels, The Knitting Circle and The Red Thread (soon to be made into a movie for HBO). The Red Thread is an adoption agency that specializes in placing baby girls from China with American families. The stories of six couples who have decided to adopt are woven together with the stories of the Chinese birth mothers who give up their daughters. Please register for this program.

Join Douglas Adams's hapless hero Arthur Dent as he travels the galaxy with his intrepid pal Ford Prefect, getting into horrible messes and generally wreaking hilarious havoc. Dent is grabbed from Earth moments before a cosmic construction team obliterates the planet to build a freeway. You'll never read funnier science fiction; Adams is a master of intelligent satire, barbed wit, and comedic dialogue. The Hitchhiker's Guide is rich in comedic detail and thought-provoking situations and stands up to multiple reads. Copies of the book will be available; please register.

Frederick Law Olmsted is considered by many to be the father of American landscape architecture. He designed New York City’s Central Park and Boston’s Emerald Necklace and also was influential in preserving Yosemite Valley. In Rhode Island, he designed the original landscape at the Towers in Narragansett and in Newport, the grounds at Rough Point, the home of millionaire heiress Doris Duke. The one-man play is written, directed, and acted by Gerry Wright. He holds a BS from the forestry school at the University of Maine and a MS in wildlife conservation from Cornell University. He has been portraying Olmsted since 2003. Please register for this program.

A father heads overseas to recover the body of his estranged son who died while traveling the "El Camino de Santiago," and decides to take the pilgrimage himself. Starring Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez. Registration required.

When distinguished criminal lawyer Venetia Aldridge defends a young man for the brutal murder of his mother, she views the case as simply another opportunity to demonstrate her brilliance in the courtroom. But within weeks of the trial Aldridge is found dead at her desk, a bloodstained barrister's wig on her head. Copies of the book will be available. Please register.

Caitlin Kiernan is the author of eight published novels and eight short story collections, the most recent, Two Worlds and In Between: the Best of Caitlin R. Kiernan, published in 2011. She has won numerous awards that honor work in the horror and fantasy genre. She will read from her soon-to-be published book, The Drowning Girl: A Memoir and discuss how she came to write the semi-autobiographical novel. Please register for this program. Sponsored by the North Kingstown Arts Council.

G. Wayne Miller, staff writer for the Providence Journal and author of several books and documentaries, will talk about his latest book, An Uncommon Man: The Life and Times of Senator Claiborne Pell. Pell, who passed away in 2009 was a six-term Rhode Island senator perhaps best remembered for creating the Pell Grants educational loan program.

Pat McNiff of Pat’s Pastured in Jamestown will present the third program in the library’s series on Eating Locally in Rhode Island. The guiding principles at Pat’s Pastured are to allow the livestock to express their natural instincts fully in a pasture environment; to provide the highest quality products to the community; and to use carefully-managed organic farming methods. Please register for this program.