Adult Events

The Oliver Wolcott Library offers a wide range of programming for adults, from continuing series like Monday Scholars,
to lectures, book discussions, and author talks. All events are free and open to all.

Continue your journey of lifelong learning with us!

 

April Events:

 

Sleepy Bunny Magnet

*Hop to it! These magnets are available to all while supplies last!

Now that spring is upon us, it is time for all hibernating critters to wake and spring into action! Except - it seems there are a few sleepy rabbits who haven't gotten the memo. For the month of April, OWL patrons are welcome to pick up the latest take and make craft kit and construct their own sleepy bunny magnet for themselves! You couldn't dream of an easier craft; so all skill levels are welcome to participate.

 

 

 

 

Exploring Yeats: a discussion with Jim Kelleher & Sandy Lee Carlson

Zoom Participants:  Zoom Link - click here on April 26 at 11:00 AM

We invite you to explore a selection of Yeats’ work with us! 
  

William Butler Yeats is a foremost Irish poet of the 20th century. Yeats’ poetry encompassed Irish history, mythology, and politics. He is considered a master poet for his command of imagery and emotional lyric poetry. He is universal. Poets and people in every country study him and the Irish celebrate his life and contribution to Ireland, and to the canon of world literature. 

Approximately one month before, we will have a packet of the selected poems for this discussion. We encourage you to read the poems beforehand.

Jim Kelleher lives in Goshen with his partner Queenie Troy and the wild birds they feed. Jim has taught in many schools, currently WCSU, published many books including most recently You Don’t Have To Thank Me For This, and lived many dreams, among them Woodstock, the Boston Public Schools, California, Jim’s Fine Carpentry, and Cape Breton Island, Canada. He is dedicated to poetry, democracy, and living out his life in peace.
 
Sandy Lee Carlson is poet laureate emerita of Woodbury and a school teacher at Region20/Lakeview High School. She hosts the Orenaug Poetry Group on the second Saturday of each month in Woodbury. She and her husband run Orenaug Mountain Publishing.  Find out more about Sandy and her poetry at sandycarlson.net. 

 

 

SCREENAGERS: Elementary School Age Edition

 

Film Viewing & Discussion

Live, In-Person:

 

In partnership with the Litchfield PTO and The Litchfield Prevention Council, OWL is pleased to continue our ongoing series pertaining to screen use by our youth. This event is open to our entire community. Come and learn the latest research as well as what we can do to ensure play-based childhood in our community.

 

 

 

Exploring Flannery O'Connor with Mark Scarbrough

Zoom Participants:  Zoom Link - click here on Fridays at 10:30 AM  March 14 - May 9

Mark Scarbrough returns to OWL this Spring; leading us through 8 weeks of some of his favorite Flannery O’Connor works.

Flannery O'Connor is considered one of America's greatest fiction writers and her writing often reflects her Catholic faith, and frequently examined questions of morality and ethics.
When she died in August of 1964, The New York Times called her “one of the nation’s most promising writers.” 

O’Connor is now as canonical as Faulkner and Welty. More than a great writer, she’s a cultural figure: a funny lady in a straw hat, puttering among peacocks, on crutches she likened to “flying buttresses.”

Discussion Schedule:

March 14: A Good Man is Hard to Find; A Circle of Fire; and Good Country People

March 21: The Artificial N----r and The Displaced Person

March 28: Wise Blood: chapters 1 - 7

April 4: Wise Blood: chapters 8 - 14

April 11: The Violent Bear It Away: chapters 1 - 5

April 25: The Violent Bear It Away: chapters 6 - 12

May 2: Greenleaf; The Enduring Chill; and The Comforts of Home

May 9: Everything That Rises Must Converge; The Lame Shall Enter First; and Revelation

 

MARK SCARBROUGH is a former English Professor and author who teaches seminars on Virginia Woolf, William Faulkner and Toni Morrison. He also hosts three literary podcasts.

 

 

Monday Scholars: America in the Gilded Age & the Progressive Era

*no class on Feb. 17 or April 14

ZOOM LINK: Click here at 1 PM on Mondays beginning February 10 to zoom to this program.

Monday Scholars combines the best of online learning and engaging discussion!

Join us for the full 12-weeks or drop in to explore your favorite topics. Each week, we will watch two video lectures together and then engage in lively conversation afterwards. The conversation will be facilitated by OWL's Caroline Ugurlu. 

About the course:
Welcome to one of the most colorful, tumultuous, raucous, and profoundly pivotal epochs in American history. Stretching from the end of the Civil War in 1865 to roughly 1920, this extraordinary time was not only an era of vast and sweeping change—it saw the birth of the United States as we and the world at large now know it.

Click here to read more about this series.

 

Move Your Mind; Move Your Body

Zoom Participants:  Zoom Link - click here on Tuesdays at 10:15 am to Zoom to the Event.

*no class April 8 & 15

Note: This Class is designed for senior women.

The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2021 to 2030 The Decade For Healthy Ageing. The OWL has always been committed to expanding minds and now we would like to help our community expand their physical strength. 

Join Nancy Schuler in this exercise class for senior women. You can attend the class in person, here at the OWL, or online in the privacy of your home. The class features stretching and exercises that can be done in a chair or standing, and lifting of 1 or 2 lb. weights. All exercises are gentle and easy to understand. Exercise has been proven to help one's cognitive abilities, blood pressure, insomnia, digestive issues, depression, strength and independence. The Alzheimer's, Diabetes and Heart Associations all recommend exercise for healthy ageing.

No prior experience is necessary. Bring in a set of light weights for this class - 1 to 2 lbs.

 

 

May Events:

 

Paper Moths

*while supplies last!

We’re all aflutter over the new May take-and-make! Will you make a garden tiger moth, a magpie moth, or may even an impressive giant leopard moth? Why pick one, when each kit comes prepared with enough materials to make TWO? Decorate watercolor paper with any design you desire and then cut and paste your moth’s wings to a pair of clothespins provided in the take-and-make bag. We cannot wait to see you this May! Stop by and pick up your own kit before all our moths flit away!

 

 

 

 

Meet the Author: Stephen S. Hall

Zoom Participants:  Zoom Link - click here on May 1 at 6:30 PM

“Stephen Hall is not just a terrific science writer, he’s a terrific writer, period.” - Michael Pollan

 

Join us as we explore with author Stephen Hall his spellbinding scientific and cultural study of snakes, the fascination and fear they inspire, and how surprising new science is indelibly changing our perception of these stunning and frightening creatures.

For millennia, depictions of snakes as alternatively beautiful and menacing creatures have appeared in religious texts, mythology, poetry, and beyond. But where there is hatred and fear, there is also fascination and reverence. How is it that creatures so despised and sinister, so foreign of movement and ostensibly devoid of sociality and emotion, have fired the imaginations of poets, prophets, and painters across time and cultures? 

Stephen S. Hall has been reporting and writing about the intersection of science and society for more than 40 years. In addition to numerous cover stories in the New York Times Magazine, where he also served as a Story Editor and Contributing Writer, his work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, National Geographic, New York Magazine, Wired, Science, Nature, Scientific American, Discover, The Sciences, Hip-pocrates, Smithsonian, and more. He is also the author of six critically acclaimed non-fiction books about contemporary science.  He currently serves as an adjunct professor of journalism at New York University, and previously taught graduate seminars in science writing and explanatory journalism at Columbia University. 

The Curious Cat Bookshop will have books for sale the night of the event.

 

 

Non-Fiction Discussion Group

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Thursday, May 8

Meeting will be held in the Library's Jamie Gagarin Community Room.

Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

The abolition of slavery in the aftermath of the Civil War is a familiar story, as is the civil rights revolution. But if emancipation sparked "a new birth of freedom" in Lincoln's America, why was it necessary to march in Martin Luther King, Jr.'s America? This history moves from the Reconstruction Era to Jim Crow, through to World War I and the Harlem Renaissance.  Moderated by Ben

 

 

 

Fiction Discussion Group

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Thursday, May 8

Fiction Group: 3:30 pm 

Meeting will be held in the Library's Jamie Gagarin Community Room.

Acts of Forgiveness by Maura Cheeks 

Will the country’s first female president pass the Forgiveness Act, giving Black families $175,000 if they are the descendants of slaves?  For an ambitious single mother, the bill could be a long-awaited form of redemption. She’s living with her parents and daughter while trying to help run her father’s struggling construction company from going into bankruptcy. Could the Forgiveness Act uncover her forgotten roots while also helping save their beloved home and her father’s life’s work? Moderated by Frances

 

 

 

From Litchfield Courthouse to The Abner Hotel

In-Person Registration Required: Click here to attend in-person

One of Litchfield’s most recognizable buildings is the Historic Courthouse on the Litchfield Green. The courthouse was built it 1889 but now in 2025 the beautiful building has taken on a new function. Join the new owners, David Boyd and Kevin O’Shea as they take us on a visual journey of turning an 1889 building into a 2025 boutique hotel, the Abner.

David and Kevin will also invite you to stroll over to the hotel after their presentation to see the inside of the hotel and to enjoy a cocktail as their guest.

 

 

Meet the Author Nicholas Bellantoni: Hiking Ruins of Southern New England

Zoom Participants:  Zoom Link - click here on May 22 at 6:30 PM

Don’t miss this fascinating presentation! 

Hiking Ruins of Southern New England is a guide to hiking archaeological sites in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Many people have no idea that there are archaeological sites in the area, on public lands where they are allowed to hike. 

There are numerous hikes featuring historic ruins  in Connecticut to explore such as: A hike through Revolutionary War history on the Putnam Memorial State Park Trail; the legendary and significant archeological ruins on the Lighthouse Village and Jessie Gerard Trails in Barkhamsted; the ruins of an old amusement park on the Suburban Park Trail in Unionville; the Farmington Canal Trail, and so much more! 

Dr. Nicholas F. Bellantoni is emeritus Connecticut State Archaeologist and an associate research professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Connecticut. He served as the state archaeologist with the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History and Archaeology Center in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at the University of Connecticut.

The Curious Cat Bookshop will have books for sale the night of the event.

 

 

About Our Zoom Events:

All of our Virtual Zoom Events are live. They are not recorded. To participate/join the event, you need to use the exact link connected to the event. Once you click on the link at the specified date and time, you will be prompted to open Zoom, the virtual meeting program we are using. All you need is an internet connection and a device or computer with a webcam and audio. Most computers have built-in webcams. No passwords or confirmation codes, just click the link and follow the prompts.

 

More security, more privacy: In response to concerns about privacy in a virtual meeting space, we have enabled additional security features in Zoom and updated our meeting links to be protected, private, and secure. These new, unique links can also be accessed through our e-newsletters. To receive secure information regarding these events, please subscribe to our e-newsletter! Click here to learn more about our e-newsletter offerings.